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THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/chappelofeasechuOOfirsiala

THE "CHAPPEL OF EASE"

AND

CHURCH OF STATESMEN.

Commemorative Services

AT THE

COMPLETION OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS
SINCE THE GATHERING OF THE

jfirst Ct)urct) of Cl)rt6t in (auincp.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY.

1890.

John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.

F
YM

PREFACE.

THE labor involved in getting at the facts of the History
OF First Church, and in arranging for publication what
else is in these pages, has been greatly lightened by the courte-
ous assistance of many who are engaged in historical research,
and by the encouragement of all interested in the story and
fame of this ancient society.

To Mr. Charles Francis Adams I am especially indebted for
his co-operation in securing photographs of the portraits of his
ancestors, and for the frequent use I have made of his full and
very interesting sketch of Quincy in the " History of Norfolk
County." This sketch I have found to be an almost exhaustless
treasury of facts, well chosen and skilfully connected, and the
extent of my borrowings from it has been limited only by the
confined scope of this book. Mr. J. P. Quincy readily fur-
nished the engraving of Josiah Quincy, and from other mem-
bers of his family I have obtained valuable hints. Many
excellent suggestions have come to me from Mr. S. A. Bates,
Braintree's noted antiquary and town clerk, and from the Hon.
Samuel A. Green, Secretary of the Massachusetts Historical
Society. Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. proffered the electro-
type of " Dorothy Q. ; " Messrs. Ticknor <fe Co. permitted the use
of the engraving of John Hancock, which was prepared for the
" Memorial History of Boston," and the proprietors of the
" Quincy Patriot " lent their electrotype of the Rev. John
Hancock Meetinsr-House. Other illustrations I am enabled to

1910424

IV PREFACE.

supply from the engravings used by Dr. Lunt in the " Two Hun-
dredth Anniversary " discourses, which were given me by Mrs.
Revere. Mr. Harry L. Rice placed in my hands many artistic
photographs of Quincy houses and their interiors, which have
been of great assistance. The view of the interior of the Stone
Temple was taken by him at my request. To all these and
many besides who also rendered essential service my thanks are
extended.

Owing to the length of the historical discourses, much in
them was omitted when they were delivered. They are now
published in full, with notes and an appendix.

D. M. WILSON.
Quincy, March, 1890.

CONTENTS.

PAOB

The " Chappel OP Ease " 1

The Chukch of Statesmen 33

Commemorative Services 65

Invocation by the Rev. R. Stebbins 69

Prater by the Rev. A. P. Putnam, D.D 70

Address by the Pastor 73

Letter of Gov. Oliver Ames 74

Address by the Rev. S. "W. Brooke 76

Remarks op Mr. L. H, H. Johnson 80

Letter of the Rev. J. D. Wells 81

Address by Charles Francis Adams 82

Address by the Rev. A. A. Ellsworth 87

Address by Josiah Quincy 91

Poem by Christopher P. Cranch 97

Address by the Rev. C. R. Eliot , . . 105

Address by the Rev. James de Normandie 108

Address by THE Rev. Joseph Osgood 110

Persons Present at the 200th and 250th Anniversaries 112

Letters of Congratulation 113

Preliminary Proceedings 133

VI CONTENTS.

APPENDIX.

PAOI

The Covenant 137

The Deacons 138

Meeting-Houses 139

Gifts of Communion Vessels 147

Other Gifts to the Church 150

Portrait of John Wheelwright, and other Portraits and

Pictures 151

Moses Fiske's Autograph 159

ILLUSTEATIONS.

PAGE

Stone Temple Frontispiece

Mount Wollaston in 1839 4

John Wheelwkight 12

QuiNCY Mansion 17

Brackett Homestead 17

The Webb House 25

Birthplaces of John and John Quincy Adams 25

The Ruggles House 25

The Hancock Meeting-House 49

John Adams 50

Abigail Adams 50

John Hancock 52

Josiah Quincy 54

John Quincy Adams 56

Mrs. John Quincy Adams -56

Charles Francis Adams 62

Mrs. Charles Francis Adams 62

Gravestones of Pastor Tompson and Teacher Flynt ... 64

Interior of Stone Temple 65

Rev. Wm. Smith 81

Richard Cranch 81

VIU ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Rev. Peter Whitney 81

Rev. W. p. Lunt, D.D 81

Rev. J. D. Wells .81

Rev. D. M. Wilson 81

Tablet to JouN AND Abigail Adams .103

Tablet TO John QuiNCY AND Louisa Catherine Adams . . .111

Invitation TO 2o0th Anniversary 113

" Dorothy Q." 116

Adams Mansion 121

Drawing-Room in Adams Mansion 121

YoRKE Communion Cup, 1699 147

Cranch House 155

The Rev. John Wilson House 155

Signature of Moses Fiske 159

HISTOEICAL DISCOURSES.

I.

THE "CHAPPEL OF EASE."

For this is the Covenant that I will make "with the
House of Israel after those days, saith the Lord : I
WILL PUT MY Laws into their mind, and write them in
THEIR hearts. — Hebvews viii. 10.

FOR a church to have lived two and a half centuries
of the nineteen named after Christ may seem a
slight distinction, most especially when that measure of
continuance is compared, to go back no further, with the
age of the really ancient Christian institutions of the Old
World, — such as the Cathedral of Canterbury founded
by Saint Augustine, or the monastic order organized by
Saint Benedict. But when it is remembered that this
length of life is concurrent with the history of civiliza-
tion in New England, that it was about two hundred
and fifty years ago that one lofty enterprise, conceived
and executed by devout and courageous men and women,
established the State as well as the Church ; when, too,
we consider that whatever of holiest aspiration and
noblest endeavor has distinguished the people of New
England — their longing for things eternal, their obe-

2 THE "CHAPPEL OF EASE."

dience to laws human and divine, their domestic virtues,
their love of liberty, their respect for learning — was
kindled and nourished at the altar thus early erected to
God, — then the rounding of two and a half centuries may
fairly be celebrated as an event of some importance.
With this regard, many of our old " First Churches " have
recently observed with much solemn rejoicing their two
hundred and fiftieth birthday. No church of them all,
however, has, in the circumstances attending its forma-
tion, a more exciting and picturesque history than this
First Church of Christ in Quincy ; and no other in all
the land has become more famous for eminent and en-
tirely noble men and women. Ours is a church with a
story.

Much of this story has been told on previous anniver-
saries by two of the most noted pastors of the church, —
the Rev. John Hancock, and the Rev. William P. Lunt,
D. D. Their careful and eloquent discourses have served
greatly to deepen affection for this ancient society, and
to increase the devotion of its members to the pure
principles of our religion. All that is left me to do now
is to cherish the hope that I may improve in some slight
measure the present occasion as they worthily improved
the past occasions.

Exciting were the circumstances, I have said, which
attended the formation of this church. It was here, in
this place, that the stern temper and solidifying dogma-
tism of the Puritan came in conflict, on two notable
occasions, with more free and fluent conceptions of life
and belief. Had these attained permanence and power

MORTON AND MERRYMOUNT. 6

the course of New England history would have been
changed materially. Certainly one of the movements
which they opposed would have, in the tolerant and
expanding spirit of it, so allayed the fierce dogmatic
zeal of the Puritans, that the ruthless persecution of
Quakers, Baptists, and so-called witches might never
have stained the otherwise whitest character of the
founders of our institutions.

MORTON AND MERRYMOUNT.

The first thing with which the ideas of the Puritans
clashed was a conception of life. As they would put it,
it was a matter, not of doctrine, but of practice. Mor-
ton's enterprise at Merrymount was in the serious motive
of it a trading adventure, and in the lighter aspects of
it a transplanted bit of the boisterous life of the unre-
generate Englishman of that time, who became King's
man and Cavalier in contemptuous enmity to all those he
called "fanatics." Judged by any standard some of the
practices of Morton and his fellows are reprehensible, but
surely they are made to assume a darker shade contrasted
with the stern ambition and irreproachable life of the
other settlers in the Bay. These jovial spirits, to whom
it was imputed a sin to dance around a May-pole, were
no worse than the average non -Puritan, good -easy
Englishman who did the same thing on the village green
across the sea. Taken back to England charged by the
Puritans with grievous faults, Morton passes for a law-
abiding person. Returning once more to these shores,
black again he appears against the white ground of the

4 THE " CHAPPEL OF EASE.*'

theocracy. However we may think of this, is it not, at
least, to be admitted that the revels of the adventurers
at Merrymount were tempered with poetry and the
classics ? And does not Morton claim for himself that
one of his chief functions was to " endeavor to advance
the dignity of the Church of England and the laudable
use of the Book of Common Prayer " ? Had these mis-

MEBRTMOUNT.

sionaries of " Merrie England " conducted themselves
less dissolutely, is it not probable they still would
have been an abomination in the sight of the Puritans ?
Was it not the kind of their offence more than the degree
of their offending which incensed Bradford, Endicott, and
the rest ? Sternly the Puritans had renounced everything
for the dogma that earthly existence, being under the
curse, is a term of perilous probation, from which they
were to be rescued by the one narrow outlet of justifica-
tion. What cared they for the pastimes, or even the
intellectual delights, of a world thus darkened by sin

MORTON AND MERRYMOUNT. 5

and endangering their eternal welfare ! Its pleasures,
its beauty, its art, its graces were worse than vanities.
They might be temptations of the Evil One. How much
thought loses in breadth and sympathy, and life in adorn-
ment and comfort, by thus being given over to dogma, I
will not pause to show. However admirable their reso-
lute strength of character and the singleness of their
devotion, it is plain they left one side of their being
entirely uncultivated. The more rigid of them could not
look patiently upon even the innocent enjoyment of this
life and the good things of it. We do not condemn them
for this. They were so terribly in earnest to settle
exactly right their relations to God, and to save them-
selves wholly from the power of Satan, that everything
outside the sphere of these efforts seemed beyond expres-
sion inane. While in England they regarded with pity
or ineffable scorn the men who indulged in pleasure, —
it is to be admitted it was often sinful pleasure, — and
when they found the same sort here in this New World
they felt under no restraint to tolerate such " vile per-
sons and loose-livers." And very likely it were wisest to
conclude that in solemn times of sternest endeavor mock-
ing " fribbles," and " debauchees " however amusing, are
forthwith to be banished.-^ Here is the motive which
prompted hostility to Morton ; and when he made him-
self really culpable by selling fire-arms to the savages, the
occasion was quickly seized. From Pascataway to Ply-
mouth the settlers united to cast out this swaQ^crerino:
sportsman, this exponent of pleasant living and " the laud-
able use of the Book of Common Prayer." John Fiske

1 C. F. Adams's Introduction to New English Canaan.

6 THE "CHAPPEL OF EASE."

calls him a ''picturesque but ill-understood personage."
An ill-used personage lie was now to be also. Miles Stand-
isli, with his " invincible army," invaded our soil, captured
Morton, and roughly dragged him to Plymouth. Thence
he was shipped a prisoner to England. He returned free
the next year, only to be seized by the Boston magistrates,
imprisoned, put in the bilboes, and to England sent once
more. As he passed out of the bay his house was fired in
his sight, in rough intimation that the "fanatic separatists"
had done with him for good and all ; that " the habitation
of the wicked should no more appear in Israel ; " and that
henceforth this land was to be given up to sobriety of
carriage and the preaching of the accepted dogma.

After the dispersion of Morton and his " consorts," the
country round about the Mount was practically unoccu-
pied by the whites. It was known chiefly now as the
planting ground of the tribe of Indians called the Massa-
chusetts, and through its meadows and around the head
of its salt-water inlets was worn the trail which ran
between Plymouth and Boston. If a few of Morton's
party still lingered upon the lands he claimed, they have
left no trace to assure us of the fact. The raids of
Miles Standish and the Boston magistrates were only too
effectual in cutting off ten years from the age of this
settlement, and making us the fifteenth or so, when we
might have been the first or second, in the Bay. But as
recompense the soil was to be planted with better seed.
God was " sifting a whole nation that he might send
choice grain over into this wilderness."

THE BRAINTKEE COMPANY.

THE BRAINTREE COMPANY.

In the summer of 1632 the company — or congrega-
tion, rather — of the renowned minister, the Rev. Thomas
Hooker, from Braintree in Essex County, England, began
to " sit down " at the Mount and provide for the coming
of their pastor and still others of the brethren. While
they were actively engaged erecting houses to shelter
them during the approaching winter, word came in
August from the General Court that they were to re-
move to Newtown, now Cambridge. They did not de-
part at once, we surmise, for it is likely they would
keep to the rude shelter already begun, and improve
it throughout the short season left them. There is no
evidence the allotments were made at Newtown and the
names of those taking them recorded before the next
spring. And not all, who went thither, removed at last
to Hartford when Hooker led the Braintree company
there. Two, we certainly know, drifted to Hingham.^
Some we must presume remained here. The fact that
eight years later the town when incorporated was called
Braintree, is evidence that settlers from Hooker's com-
pany continued here and acquired influence. We may
reasonably account this the beginning of the permanent
settlement at the Mount.

THE MOUNT ANNEXED TO BOSTON.

Hooker was a noted divine, and his people entirely
worthy persons. But a more important company still

1 Page's History of Cambridge.

8 THE "cnAPPEL OF EASE."

was about this time looked for from England. One
wonders if the Braintree company was ordered away to
make room for it. John Cotton, the famous rector of
St. Botolph's, in Boston, England, was coming over, and
with him many others, some being wealthy and influen-
tial. Where should they be bestowed ? The arrival
of Cotton in September, 1633, and about two hundred
more made this question urgent. At once the Governor
and Council, together with the ministers and elders of
all the churches, met to consider the matter. The new
arrivals desired they " might sit down where they might
keep store of cattle." Boston, with scarce seven hundred
acres, and much of that marsh and rough thicket, had
no sufficient accommodation. But in Boston the great
Cotton and his company must be retained. So " it was
agreed by full consent that the fittest place for him was
Boston, and in that respect [of scarcity of land] those of
Boston might take farms in any part of the Bay not be-
louQ-ino; to other towns." ^ Cotton was then added to the
Boston church as Teacher, and the General Court in the
spring of 1G34 ordered that '• Boston shall have conve-
nient enlarg-ement at Mount Wollaston." Four " indif-
ferent men " were appointed to draw up a plan of the
lands there and apportion them. Men not '' indifferent "
there were, who had already fixed their desires upon
certain clioico portions of the newly acquired territory.^
These were to ho provided for. But first their respect

1 Winthrop. i. 133.

- Dcccmher. Fir^t. 1631. — It is granted that ^Ir. Newbery shall have
the hcdrrey rrround that lies in the bottom lietwixt his house and the water
next Mr. Cottington's farme in p'te of the medow that he is to have. — Dor-
chester Record.

THE MOUNT ANNEXED TO BOSTON. 9

for the ministry found expression in a large grant of land
to their pastor, John Wilson, then absent on a voyage to
England to bring over his wife. Already he had received
land by Mystic side, but now on the 10th of December,
1634, there were bestowed upon him as many acres "at
his election " in this favored place as his former grant
amounted to, and in exchange for it. He returned in
October of 1635, and seeking to possess himself of his
allotment found it encumbered with the claims of earlier
settlers from Dorchester and the original rights of the
Indians. Evidently it was not given him to take land
anywhere •' at his election," but only where it was set
apart for him on the plan. A matter of foreordination
seems to have predominated his power of " election," —
an association of these doctrines not entirely acceptable
to the Boston theologian. However, to compensate him
for money spent in purchasing the rights of claimants he
was permitted to keep his land by Mystic, and additional
acres were granted him at the Mount. Ten days after
this was done there was " bound out there what may
be sufficient for Mr. William Coddington and Edmund
Quinsey to have for their particular farms there." For
situation their allotment excelled, and we hear not an
echo of conflicting claims. These were the men not '• in-
different," who were not, for fairness' sake, to be appoint-
ed on the committee to draw up a plan, yet who, long
before this, had selected their lands and purchased all
rights of Indians and others. Coddington was the treasu-
rer of the colony, a man of substance and solid influence,
noted too as builder of the first brick house in Boston.
Quincy was also a man of means and commanding char-

10 THE " CHAPPEL OF EASE."

acter, chosen to office soon after his arrival here. The
grant these two men received amounted to above a thou-
sand acres in one broad strip bordering on the sea, and
extending from Sachem's Brook to a point beyond the
hill which Morton made famous.

These prior claims settled, Boston was ready to give
members of Cotton's company and others of its own
congregation sufficient allotments. Atherton Hough,
sometime mayor of Boston, England, and a man of con-
sequence among Cotton's followers, had laid out for him
a large estate of six hundred acres on the Neck, to this
day named after him. Another devoted adherent of
Cotton was William Hutchinson. His wife, who was
more devoted still, and who welcomed the wilderness
that had Cotton to preach in it, was the famous Anne
Hutchinson, so prominent later in the first great doc-
trinal controversy of the colony. Tliis "William Hutch-
inson received a " great lott " adjoining Wilson's grant
on the west, in what is now North Quincy and East
Milton. At the same time that these large grants were
made, three divisions of allotments were marked out
for the " common people." ^ These allotments were ap-
portioned at the rate of seven acres for every person
in the family, and were arranged along Town River
and mostly to the south of it. They were called the
" Brethren's Lots," for all receiving them were members
of the Boston con£!:reg:ation. Tt is a notable fact that
only such as were members of the congregation, or likely
to be, were granted lands. A church was settling here, —
a congregation of earnest persons who could no longer

^ Boston Records, pp. 21, 4G, 4 7.

THE MOUNT ANNEXED TO BOSTON. 11

endure in silence the candles, the posturing, and the
doctrines imposed by the bishops, and who, not caring
to abide the perils of open speech (the imprisonment,
the whipping, the maiming, which Laud imposed), had
fled for peace to this wide and free wilderness. With
all their home-making, still uppermost in their thoughts
were spiritual things. They were so disposing them-
selves as best "to worship God and enjoy him forever."
As yet their meeting-house was in Boston, and thither
on the Lord's Day they conscientiously repaired. But so
rapid was the growth of the new settlement that two
years had not elapsed since the first allotment was made,
when the inhabitants were petitioning to be set off as
an independent town and church. In December of 1636
eight persons, with the Governor at their head, were
chosen to consider " of Mount Wollastone business, and
for the ripening thereof how there may be a town and
church there with the consent of this town's inhabi-
tants." -^ " Many meetings were about it. The great let
was, in regard it was given to Boston for upholding
the town and church there, which end would be frus-
trated by the removal of so many chief men as would go
thither. For help of this it was propounded that such
as dwelt there should pay six-pence the acre, yearly,
for such lands as lay within a mile of the water, and
three-pence for that which lay farther off." ^

All conspired to the speedy establishment here of one
of the most prosperous and progressive towns in the
colony. The " chief men," intelligent, ambitious, and
wealthy, were here ; the people, sober and industrious,

1 Boston Records, p. 14. 2 Winthrop, i. 233.

12 THE " CHAPPEL OF EASE."

were here in sufficient and increasing numbers. All the
preliminaries were arranged ; actually all but the final
step taken. A church too was virtually gathered, and
only waited for that joining in solemn covenant which
should launch it into an independent and influential ca-
reer. Indeed, the very character of that church seemed
to be determined. For some time now, events in the
colony had been bringing to the surface the progres-
sive and conservative instincts of the people and array-
ing them in opposing parties. And as a number of the
more liberal sort had already established themselves at
the Mount, others were looking in that direction as to
a retreat for the peaceful development of their opinions.
The right minister only seemed wanting, but he also
was at hand in Boston, — a man by temperament and
scholarship fitted to lead an intelligent, truth-seeking
consrregration. The next month he received an invita-
tion to labor at the Mount.

JOHN WHEELWRIGnX.

The Rev. John Wheelwright arrived in Boston with
his family the 2Gth of May, 1636, about seven months
before the committee was chosen to arrange for an inde-
pendent church at the Mount. He was at this time forty-
four years of age, in the full strength of manhood, ener-
getic, independent, aggressive. Oliver Cromwell was his
college classmate and friend ; they were alike in the fear-
lessness and stubbornness of their character. Persistently
Wheelwright preached against the ceremonial innovations
of Laud, and when silenced for it resolutely turned bis

^onr\^ JAThLAi tO xioJli^

JOHN WHEELWRIGHT. 13

face to the New \Yorld. He found affairs not entirely
peaceful here. Mrs. Hutchinson, " his sister," as Win-
throp called her (Mr. Hutchinson was his wife's brother),
was beginning to attract attention by her original ideas,
and by daring to criticise some of the ministers. Now
two years in the colony, she by her tender, neighborly
offices had endeared herself as " a dear saint and servant
of God," as her husband described her ; and by her bright
intelligence had become a necessity to women spiritually
perplexed. Woman then, as regards religion at least,
was the suppressed sex, quite silently subservient to the
solemn ecclesiastical routine, her spontaneity and swift
instincts obstructed by ponderous masculine formality.
With all a woman's disdain of mechanism, Mrs. Hutch-
inson expressed in the most luminous way just what was
in the minds of her sisters, and then led them on to
higher interpretations of the letter and finer perceptions
of the spirit. She was interesting; they liked to hear
her talk, and gained more profit from her than from the
most " painful preaching." In time, as Winthrop declares,
" she had more resort to her for counsel about matters of
conscience than any minister (I might say all the elders)
in the country." And from a few who dropped in to talk
with her about the sermons preached of a Sunday or lec-
ture day, she eventually gathered around her, twice in
the week regularly, as many as from sixty to a hundred
women. This went on at first with the entire commen-
dation of the ministers. It was like a modern revival.
But trouble began when Mrs. Hutchinson discovered that
Pastor Wilson's preaching was not so spiritual as that
of her favorite divine, Teacher Cotton. She criticised

14 THE *^CnAPPEL OF EASE."

other ministers too ; said they preached a " covenant of
works," and hinted that an austere countenance was no
sure sign of piety.

The ministers of the colony were a peculiar class, ex-
alted by their sacrifices for the faith of the Reformers,
and reverenced as the prophets, the very mouths of God.
" What ye do unto them, the Lord Jesus takes as done
unto himself," was gravely asserted. " And now sud-
denly," as Mr. C. F. Adams the younger writes, " a
woman came, and calmly and persistently intimated that
as a class God's prophets in New England were not what
they seemed." This was more than could be borne by
even " very humble and unworthy instruments of God."
To teach strange doctrine was bad enough, but to doubt
the accredited servants of the Most High was worse.
Fairly, however, they were open to this criticism. The
weak and disagreeable side of Puritanism was its insist-
ence upon uniformity in doctrine and the upholding of
the ordinances. The same phrases were expected from
every one, the same outward demeanor, the same pious
routine. One might make a business of all this, go
through it mechanically, appear to be very devout, and
still remain unspiritual within.

From this the teaching of Mrs. Hutchinson was a
revolt. She laid the emphasis upon spirituality. No
matter about the outward demeanor and the painful
effort to fulfil the law. Have the heart right; let the
spiritual principle be active within you, — then whatever
is worthy and of good report will follow. She really rose
to a sublime religious philosophy when she declared that
the individual might have union with the Holy Spirit, and

JOHN WHEELWKIGHT. 15

that then he is more than a creature : he is immortal,
has present revelations of God, and is filled with ravishing
joy. What have we better than that to-day ? To be
sure, when one attempts to define such union he is lia-
ble to ambiguity of expression ; and when he tries to
extort too much from private revelations he is likely to
fall into extravagances. In these particulars the Hutch-
inson party exposed themselves to misunderstandings.
Nevertheless here was a genuine advance of the Spirit,
a genial enlightenment in the natural evolution of the
Puritan ideal.

Wheelwright allied himself at once and enthusiasti-
cally with the " Covenant of Grace " party. Not that
Mrs. Hutchinson now converted him. These heart-search-
ing principles were held in common by them both and
by others while in England. They might almost be
called the Lincolnshire varient of non-conformity. All
the Hutchinsons held it to be the truth. Cotton and
Hough and others from the fens district were sympa-
thetic, and doubtless Wheelwright during the three years
he lived near Lincoln under the ban of the bishops
labored as he did in this land " to bring Christ into
the hearts of the people." By not one of the liberals
is this doctrine introduced as a thing strange and revo-
lutionary. It is regarded by them simply as the ideal
Puritanism, the faith of the Reformers at its best, the
truth, the hope of the free enjoyment of which had
brought them all to this country. Why it should give
offence to any was no doubt a surprise to Wheelwright.
On the side of this vital and sincere effort to realize
God in the heart he found arrayed the entire Boston

16 THE '^CHAPPEL OF EASE."

church, with the exception of Wilson the pastor, Gov-
ernor Winthrop, and one or two others. "Many out
of the church were her converts ; yea," says Winthrop,
bitterly, " many profane persons became of her opinion."
It was a popular movement sweeping into its current the
chief town in the Bay, and some in other towns. Glad to
find Wheelwright with them, this party was minded to
place^^him with Wilson and Cotton as a third minister
over Boston church. On a Sunday in the October after
his arrival this project was set in motion, and on the 30th
was taken up for definite action. Opposition was made ;
even Cotton, who was claimed by the liberals, saying he
" could not consent, . . . calling in one whose spirit they
knew not, and one who seemed to dissent in judgment ;
. . . and though he thought reverently of his godli-
ness and abilities, so as he could be content to live under
such a ministry, yet seeing he was apt to raise doubt-
ful disputations he could not consent to choose him to
that place. . . . Whereupon the cliurcli gave way that
he might be called to a new church to be gathered at
Mount Wollaston."

WHEELWEIGHT CALLED TO THE MOUNT.

The promptness with which Wheelwright was diverted
from Boston church to tlie church growing up at the
Mount suggests it was a purpose held in hand as a second
resort by the liberals. I am tempted to say that the in-
tention was becoming manifest to build in this place a
church in whicli the new spirit and expanding views
might be peaceably unfolded. At all events the enterprise

THE OLDER QUINCY MANSION.

THE H.F^AC!-;ETT HoME.STFAD

WHEELWRIGHT CALLED TO THE MOUNT. 17

of a new church and town ripened rapidly. It was about
a month after Wheelwright began to labor here, in De-
cember of 1636, that the eight persons with the Governor
at their head were chosen " to consider of Mount Wollas-
ton business, — how there may be a church and town
there." At this time Wheelwright lodged, perhaps, as
the occasion required, in Coddington's house, by " Mount
Wollastone River ; " and it may be the preaching at first
was done in the same place.^ But now the minister was
to have an estate and house of his own. In the February
following, Coddington and Wright were ordered to lay out
for him where most convenient, " without prejudice to
setting up of a town there," two hundred and fifty
acres. At the same time others who confided in him
and followed him, applied for and received allotments.^
The Wheelwright grant started with forty acres in the
three-hill marsh, with five acres for house-lot (where
perhaps the old Brackett homestead now is), and two
hundred and five acres at the end of it extending into
the country. Here, by the banks of "Town Brook"

1 That Coddington tlien had a house at the Mount is made clear by what
Lechford records in his Note Book. Wm. Tyng, who subsequently purchased
the Coddington estate, wants to lease it to a Mr. Reade. One of the condi-
tions is that Reade shall allow Tyng entertainment when he visits the farm,
" and at these times he shall have the use of the chamber which Mr. Codding-
ton used to lye in for his lodging." There was also a large barn. The build-
ings were situated about where the old Quincy mansion is on Black's Creek.
The stream was first called Mount Wollaston River, then Coddington's Brook,
next Quincy's Brook, and since, after every occupant of the historic house
there. The latest appellation is Butler's Brook. This home-lot between
brook and pond and near tide-landing, and with extensive meadows on every
hand, was the prize place in the plantation.

2 Among these Nicholas Needham, William "Wardwell, a servant of Edmund
Quincy, and William Cole are found with Wheelwright when he went to Exeter.

2

18 THE *^ CHAPPEL OF EASE."

running through "the heart" of the settlement, was
his farm; and here he began at once to make a home
for wife and children, and to root himself in our soil.
Regularly he ministered to the congregation gathering
about him, winning the confidence of his people, and
working together with them to establish a choice com-
munity. In this very beginning of our church it was, for
numbers, quite strong. Besides those of the Mount it in-
cluded, probably, some of Dorchester's people living this
side the Neponset, and some from Weymouth, where they
too "had drunk in some of Mrs. Hutchinson's opin-
ions." But however large, it was not yet an indepen-
dent church ; it was only what Lawyer Lechford called
a " CiiAPPEL OF Ease, . . . where a neighboring minister
or brother preacheth and exerciseth prayer every Lord's
day," the people still members of Boston church, and
as sign of that receiving the sacrament there.

SWORDS IN A SERMON.

On a fast, kept Jan. 19, 1636, most, it may be,
went to Boston to " receive." At all events their
minister was there, for in the afternoon, after Mr.
Cotton had preached a " directive " sermon on recon-
ciliation, "Mr. Wheelwright was desired by the church
to exercise as a private brother by way of prophecy."
Whereupon he pushed his way slowly to the pulpit
through the crowded congregation which filled Boston's
primitive meeting-house, took a sermon from his pocket
and spread it before him. Eager and alert were the
faces he looked upon. Already that day the people

SWORDS IN A SERMON. 19

had listened to two long discourses/ and to as many
prayers, "unmerciful" in their length, as the unsympa-
thetic Lechford describes them. Still, they were hungry
to hear more with regard to the controversy which
agitated the town, and were in strained expectancy of
word or phrase which, according to their bias, would
be either luminous with truth or dark with heresy.
Wheelwright felt the stimulus of the occasion. His
sermon, written at a hint that it would be called for,
he preached with fervency. Although he girded vigor-
ously against " legalists," — all "' those under a covenant
of works," — he was wholly unconscious that he was
uttering anything incendiary. And yet no other ser-
mon ever preached on this continent has had such a
remarkable effect. Immediately it arrayed " legalists "
in open and concerted hostility against *^' antinomians,"
and brought the colony to the very verge of ruin.
Read that sermon carefully and you will see it is a
quite sensible production, written closely to the occa-
sion, and having for chief exhortation the "keeping
Christ in a spiritual way." You may discern a thread
of fire running through its uncouth phraseology; but
there is really not enough flame in it to account for
the great conflagration which ensued. To be sure he
says, " ^Ye must all prepare for a spiritual combat ; "
to " keep the Lord Jesus Christ," the children of God
" ought to show themselves valiant ; they should have
their swords ready ; they must fight, and fight with
spiritual weapons." Of course the "swords" are figura-
tive, and the warfare which was urged a wordy one.

1 Mercurius Americanus, p. 216, in C. II. Bell's "Life of J. Wheelwright."

20 THE " CnAPPEL OF EASE."

But the ^^ legalists," affronted anew by so fearless an
arraignment of such as opposed " free grace " on an
occasion so notable, and alarmed at the formidable pro-
portions to which the new movement was attaining,
were disposed to take them in a literal sense. Some-
thing must be done to suppress the heresy. As Mr. C.
F. Adams the younger says, " they greatly needed a
scapegoat ; and a scapegoat they found ready to their
hands in the pastor at the Mount."

Wheelwright, conscious only that on a distinguished
occasion he had creditably delivered himself in duti-
ful obedience to "an over-ruling conscience," returned
quietly to his labors here. Those of the other party
were active, however ; they took up and tossed about
the martial phrases of his sermon, wrought themselves
by this exercise into a condition to proceed to extremi-
ties, and spread among themselves "a silent decree
that Wheelwright was to be disciplined." Concerted
action brought all the ministers of the Bay together
at the next meeting of the General Court, March 9,
1637. It was nearly all the colony against the Boston
congregation and the congregation at the Mount.
Some of the laity in Roxbury, Dorchester, Salem, and
other towns took part with the liberals, but to a man
the ministers outside of Boston and the j\Iount were
bitterly antagonistic. Reason for this is found in the
fact that their authority as a class seemed questioned,
and their plan of a theocracy seemed imperilled. Also,
it must be admitted, that many of them were abso-
lutely bigoted in their conservatism. ''' I will petition
to be chosen the universal idiot of the world," said

THE INQUISITION IN NEW ENGLAND. 21

Ward of Ipswich, "if all the wits under the heavens
can lay their heads together and find an assertion
worse than this, — that men ought to have liberty of
their conscience, and that it is persecution to debar
them of it." Welde of Roxbury and Shepard of Cam-
bridge had no words to express their condemnation of
Mrs. Hutchinson when she denied the resurrection of
the body ; and when she avowed the belief, now held
by many Christians of all sects, that "the coming of
Christ is his coming to us in union," Wilson cried out,
"I hold this opinion to be dangerous and damnable,
and to be no less than Sadduceeism and atheism, and
therefor to be detested." At the hands of such, those
of liberal opinion would fare hard.

THE INQUISITION IN NEW ENGLAND.

Before a court thus constituted in the majority of it
Wheelwright was summoned. The doors were closed,
and he was called upon to " satisfy the court about
some passages of his sermon which seemed to be offen-
sive." He declined to give answer to a body so inqui-
sitorial, and a petition was presented, signed by more
than forty members of the Boston church, praying
that the doors be opened. The petition was at first
ignored ; but finally the doors were thrown open, and
a great and excited assembly filled the meeting-house.
Again the sermon was produced, and it was charged
that Wheelwright had " inveighed against all that
walked in a covenant of works, had called them anti-
christs, and had stirred up the people against them."

22 THE " CHAPPEL OF EASE."

He justified his sermon, and stoutly declared that if
any did walk in a covenant of works them he did
mean. What the court sought to prove was that
Wheelwright's words were not to be taken in a gen-
eral sense, but were particularly directed against his
brother ministers. And now these ministers were asked
" if they in their ministry did walk in such a way ? "
They desired a season to consider the matter; but as
they were the chief prosecutors, it was no surprise
when they uprose in the full company of them, Cotton
only excepted, and with one voice acknowledged they
did. " So after much debate the court adjudged him
guilty of sedition and also of contempt." Coddington
was a member of that court, and, as Mr. C. H. Bell
points out, has left his testimony that he and Gov-
ernor Vane and most of the laymen were opposed to
the condemnation of Wheelwright ; " but the priests
got two of the magistrates on their side, and so got
the major part of them." Then a remonstrance, entirely
respectful in its character, was signed by about sixty
of the Boston laymen. It testified to Wheelwright's
peaceful and spiritual intentions. The most the court
could be moved to do was to defer sentence till its
next session, and barely restrained itself from imitat-
ing the bishops in their tyranny and silencing their vic-
tim. He, still astonished that his sermon should have
been so ill-construed, returned to his lal)ors at the Mount,
where, nothing subdued, " he openly ])rotosted against
the errors with which he was charged."^

The General Court at its next session. May 17, 1637,

^ Mercurius Americanus, p. 191, in C. II. Bell's "Life of J. "Wheelwright."

THE INQUISITION IN NEW ENGLAND. 23

was ordered to meet at New Town, now Cambridge.
Boston too entirely sided with the liberals to suit the
majority. It was a court of elections ; but before pro-
ceeding with that business Governor Vane and others
attempted to present a petition in behalf of Wheel-
wright and in defence of liberty of speech. Their
hope was in the people, and in their sense of fair play
and regard for the freedom of Englishmen. But the
" priests " were out in force ; Pastor Wilson climbed
a tree and harangued the multitude. After a bitter
struggle the liberal party was defeated, and Vane and
Coddington and "all of that faction," wrote Winthrop
in triumph, " were left quite out." As there was soon
to be a fast in which it would be convenient to con-
fer about differences, "the court gave Wheelwright
respite to the next session in August to bethink him-
self, that, retracting and reforming his error, the court
might show him favor, which otherwise he must not
expect. His answer was, that if he had committed
sedition then he ought to be put to death; and if we
did mean to proceed against him, he meant to appeal
to the King's Court, for he would retract nothing."^
On May 24, the day of the fast. Vane and Codding-
ton, to emphasize their dissent from the methods of
their opponents, ignored the Boston assembly and its
conference and kept the day at the Mount with Mr.
Wheelwright. A pleasant memory is it to cherish, that
the pure and high-minded Sir Harry Vane, — a hero
unsurpassed in that heroic time, the fearless and far-
seeing statesman of the Puritan revolution, — found in

1 Winthrop, i. 265.

24 THE "CHAPPEL OF EASE."

the little gathering of worshippers at the Mount the
one church in New England entirely congenial to his
broad sympathies and tolerant spirit ! No doubt the
" Chappel of Ease " was filled that day with the
friends of light and liberty. Stout Deacon Bass of
Roxbury church was there, perhaps, with others of
such as were afterward excommunicated for their
opinions. Perhaps some were there from Weymouth
and Dorchester. At all events it was a notable day in
our ecclesiastical history, and Wheelwright had hearers
not a few.

That day of humiliation had no peaceful issue. In-
stead, the strife deepened and extended. The conserva-
tives sat in the seats of the magistrates ; and when in
July there arrived from England a ship in which were
friends of the liberals, they were not permitted to land.
It was a monstrous act of injustice. Not knowing to
what a pass affairs had come in the colony, these peo-
ple had forsaken their pleasant homes and come to
these shores for peace and freedom. To their surprise
they found, instead, an oppression as harsh as that
exercised by the prelates, and a reception more inhos-
pitable than that of the rude sea to which they were
again driven. Cotton was so grieved that he was minded
to leave the plantation. Vane in an outburst of indig-
nation protested against the outrage, and pleaded for
tolerance. His words fell upon ears deaf to everything
but what " is usual among us," upon hearts hardened
by dogma. Altogether disappointed he returned to
England, where high political ideals beckoned him on
to his trairic end.

John Quincy Adams.
BIRTHPLACES OF PRESIDENTS.

■-.- ^r-i.trrj^V'

V/EBL:; HuUSE.
Takr-n frorr, r.par !he '.>♦" of old"5t Sto-i^- Ch'.,rch,

•yi-. J. H. A.i-" --J Mi'.n E. C Ar

THE INQUISITION IN NEW ENGLAND. 25

Relieved of his presence, the ecclesiastical machine in
all its ponderousness and solemnity was set in motion
to put an end to all heresy. A synod of all the
churches, the first of its kind in this new world, met
at New Town (Cambridge) the 30th of August, 1637.
For three weeks it sat in session, raking together
all the " erroneous opinions " which partisanship had
charged against the liberals. They were found to be
eighty in number, to say nothing of '' nine unwhole-
some expressions." When the slander and the gossip
and the misunderstandings were abstracted from these,
they were reduced to just three points of difference
between Wheelwright and the rest of the ministers.
Nevertheless, the eighty and nine opinions and expres-
sions were condemned; Wheelwright was condemned,
and Mrs. Hutchinson's meetings were " agreed to be
disorderly and without rule." The Boston members,
including those from Mount Wollaston, calling for wit-
nesses to the eighty errors and the names of such as
made charges, and being persistently refused, retired
early from the synod. The remainder then " carried
on matters so peaceably, and concluded them so com-
fortably in love," to use Winthrop's words, that they
were of opinion that all was now settled, — that by the
resolution of a synod thinking had been abolished, and
the free spirit of man effectually harnessed to dogma.
" But," laments Winthrop, " it fell out otherwise. For
though Mr. Wheelwright and those of his party had
been clearly confuted and confounded, yet they per-
sisted in their opinions." To the congregation at the
Mount its minister "continued his preaching after his

26 THE " CHAPPEL OF EASE."

former manner." Here he always found sympathy, and
to a right understanding of his doctrines could confi-
dently appeal at a later day.

THE FIRST MEETING-nOlTSE BUILT.

It was at this time, the spring and summer of 1G3T,
that the first meeting-house for worshippers in this
place was built. There is no evidence for this, but
probability favors it. The meeting-house is a recog-
nized land-mark when the town records begin in 1640.
The energetic Wheelwright would surely do his utter-
most to have a place in whicli to shelter his congrega-
tion ; and we may presume that his prominent parish-
ioners who were looking to this place as their home, —
Coddington, Mrs. Judith Quincy,^ the Hutchinsons, Sar-
gent Savage, and others, — would ably second his efforts.
The house was situated just to the south of the bridge
which then crossed Town River on the highway to
Weymouth and Plymouth. It was solidly built of
stone, — whether for defence against the Indians or as
evidence of the deliberate purpose and settled feelings
of those who were to occupy it, we cannot tell. At
all events it was, so far as we know, the first stone
meeting-house built in New England. For a hundred
years it served the religious and civic occasions of the
town, and was then superseded by the house built in
1732, under the ministry of the Rev. John Hancock.

^ Edmuri'] Quiacy died in 1635, leaving a widow and two oliildren "in the
wilderness."

LIBERALS DISARMED AND BANISHED. 27

After the synod, religious matters could not be left
in their unsettled state, — Mrs. Hutchinson still expound-
ing at Boston, and Wheelwright preaching other offen-
sive sermons at the Mount. For two months more
they were tolerated ; and then when the court met in
November it was decisively resolved to uproot all
heresy, swiftly and thoroughly.

LIBERALS DISARMED AND BANISHED.

No Star Chamber ever flung bolt more ruthless than
that which was now hurled by " saints against saints."
The sentence hanging over the head of Wheelwright was
let fall; he was disfranchised and banished. Mrs. Hutch-
inson was banished. Then the sixty leading men of
Boston who had mildly remonstrated that Wheelwright
was peaceful and guiltless of sedition, were treated as
criminals, all of them disarmed, and the more prominent
banished also. The excuse for this act of tyranny was
that the magistrates feared an uprising. They had
indeed, through their injustice, cause to fear it ; yet
no liberal of them all ever made the least show of
violence, and with one exception none of them ever
exhibited any loose behavior. In the turbulent history
of religion it was once more the resort to force of
a stronger party, to rid itself of those differing from
it in opinion. The churches followed up the banish-
ments by excommunicating all their members who had
manifested independence or liberality. It was winter-
time, and the snow lay deep ; but scourged by the op-
pressor, some of the worthiest of those who sought here

28 THE " CHAPPEL OF EASE."

a haven of rest must face once more the wilderness.
Wheelwright, the fearless preacher of "Christ in the
life;" Coddington, the independent and able counsellor;
John Coggeshall, stout of heart and outspoken ; the
Hutchinsons, all of them high-minded and truth-loving,
— these and others must leave the homes they had
founded in hope and affection, their property sacrificed,
or actually confiscated. " Because it Avas winter," Mrs.
Hutchinson was not immediately driven forth, but was
put in the keeping of her enemies, who tortured her with
questions, confutations, and censures. She was alone, and
entirely at their mercy. Her husband and her stanch-
est friends were in Rhode Island, negotiating for the
purchase from the Indians of Acquidneck. Even her
pastor, John Cotton, for whose ministrations she had
crossed the ocean, deserted her, and "admonished her
with much zeal and detestation of her errors." After
trying her at two church-meetings, during which "Welde
and Shepard and Wilson and other ministers displayed
their skill in ensnaring, browbeating, and confusing her
whom in contempt they called " but a woman," she was
solemnly excommunicated, — in set words delivered up
to Satan, and " in the name of Christ commanded as a
leper to withdraw herself out of the congregation." So
the weary woman before the winter had quite gone, in
the spring of 1G38, " went by water to her farm at the
Mount," and then " by land to Providence, and so to
the island in the Narragansett Bay which her husband
and the rest of that sect had purchased of the Indians."
Further we might follow her, and tell of her wander-
ings and of her tragic death at the hands of the sav-

LIBERALS DISARMED AND BANISHED. 29

ages; but it pertains not to our history, and is all sad
enough.

Wheelwright had been given fourteen days in which
he was to settle his affairs and leave the colony. Upon
his own request he was dismissed to his family at the
Mount, his parishioner, Atherton Hough, becoming bonds-
man for him. Here in his own home, and surrounded
by sympathizing friends, he prepared for his departure.
Others also were going, and there was much sad work
and sorrowful parting to do. On the last Sunday before
he went he gathered his little congregation once more
about him, and preached his farewell sermon. It is on
record that he retracted nothing, and even more sturdily
than ever defended himself against unjust charges, and
expounded his ideal puritanism. It was the last sermon
he ever preached at the Mount ; it was the last to be
preached in the little church there for some time.

Leaving his wife and children. Wheelwright set out
with some voluntary exiles of his flock for Pascataway,
the coast region of what is now New Hampshire. It was
bitter cold, and the snow lay unusually deep, so that as
he afterward declared, it was marvellous he got thither
at all. There he and his companions from the Mount,
together with some who came in that ship whose passen-
gers were refused a landing, bought a large tract of coun-
try of the Indians, laid the foundations of the important
settlement of Exeter, New Hampshire, and established the
first church of it. Mrs. Hutchinson had intended to join
him there, and she was to sail from the Mount with his
wife and children ; but as we have seen, she and her
husband eventually threw in their lot with the Rhode

30 TUE "CHAPPEL OF EASE."

Island exiles. And now in this same spring of 1638
Wheelwright's wife with her children and his mother,
accompanied by other families of the pioneers, left to join
their husbands in the new plantation in the north.

THE LIBERAL PARTY CHARACTERIZED.

So with a heavy hand the " Chappel of Ease " at the
Mount was abolished. For the second time the sterner
spirit of the Puritan lifted itself in anger against this
place, and for the second time its inhabitants were swept
away. The exodus from the Mount was large and im-
portant, those cast out being since reckoned among the
honorable founders of two such considerable places as
Newport, Rhode Island, and Exeter, New Hampshire.
We have ever since suffered from the loss ; and the in-
jury done the entire colony by the rough discomfiture
and banishment of these sincere disciples of light and lib-
erty cannot be measured. They were taking the next
step in the logical development of the faith of the Re-
formers. The ministers were content to stay with what
was "usually held among them;" the "authority of the
Scriptures " was wholly in the interpretations they had
already made. With this persuasion Puritanism was a
closed thing, incapable of progress and prone to perse-
cution. But in the Wheelwright party was the manifes-
tation of growth. They were not only open to new
thoiio:hts, but were advocates of the freedom of thoucrht
itself. The riglit of free speech, the principle of tolera-
tion, the privilege of every man to do his own thinking
and his own interpreting, — these are the things which

THE LIBEKAL PARTY CHARACTERIZED. 31

break in light from the darkness of that controversy.
Do not think that those sensible, those intelligent lay-
men of Boston church and other churches in the Bay
were carried away with some fanciful doctrine no one
now cares about. No, it was not that. Though the new
ideas appealed to their mind and conscience, what most
profoundly stirred them was the assault upon the dearly
cherished freedom of Englishmen. They demanded fair
play, they resisted tyranny. Much as they revered their
ministers they could not endure their dictum that it was
" corrupt judgment and practice " to question what min-
ister or magistrate said or did. Mrs. Hutchinson pre-
cisely expressed their sentiments, when she said in her
defence that "it was never in her heart to slight any
man, but only that man should be kept in his own place
and not set in the room of God."

THEY " STILL LIVE ! "

The class which presumed to lift itself " in the room
of God " had its way ; the advocates of individual free-
dom were suppressed. We cherish the conviction, how-
ever, that not in vain they strove against tyranny. We
love to think that in this church, especially, their influ-
ence is still potent. To make this plain, what can I do
better than to quote the words of Charles F. Adams the
younger, from whom I have already obtained so much ?

" Since its foundation this parish," he writes, " has shown
always a noticeable leaning toward a liberal theology. It was
never Orthodox. In this respect it was in sharp contrast with
its sister church of the Middle Precinct, and the ministers of
the two, never changing sides, more than once engaged in sharp

32 THE " CUAPPEL OF EASE."

doctrinal controversy. And so each successive pastor influenced
the people, and the tendency of the people operated back in the
selection of pastors, until the old order of things passed wholly
away. It is therefore no improbable surmise, that a little
leaven in this case also leavened the whole lump ; the seed sown
by Wheelwright in 1637 bore its fruit in the great New Eng-
land protest of two centuries later, when, under the lead of
Chanuing, the descendants in the seventh generation of those
who had listened to the first pastor at the Mount broke away
finally and forever from the religious tenets of the Puritans." ^

Assent we readily to all that ; and may we not also
surmise that civil as well as ecclesiastical history is in-
debted, in the development of its higher and ideal prin-
ciples, to this early infusion of the spirit of independence
and respect for soul liberty ? Into what other ancient
church of all the land has there been born so great a
number of notable men with an even instinctive hatred
of oppression and love of freedom ? We need not recite
their names or their deeds, — they shine with seven-fold
light in the splendor of our greatest national achieve-
ments. AVe cannot stop to praise them ; but they sum-
mon us to present duty, and to exercise the privilege
of honoring our high traditions by loyalty to truth and
consecration to right. Before us is liberty more glorious
than even the fathers conceived, and an application of
the laws of justice more sympathetic and comprehensive
than the world has yet witnessed. Toward that, and not
to the past, turn we our faces. " I think the soul to be
nothinfT but lis-lit," said Mrs. Hutchinson. The liMit is
exhaustless. May it with endless shining break forth
in the faith and the Avorks of this ancient church !

^ Sketch of Quincy, p. 275 ; History of Norfolk Co.

II.

THE CHURCH OF STATESMEN.

The gloky of this latter house shall be greater than that
OF the former, saith the Lord of hosts : and in this place
WILL I give peace, saitii THE LoRD OF HOSTS. — Haggai ii. 9.

" I "HE sermon preached last Sunday was intended to set
•^ before you the exciting events which preceded the
"embodying" of this church, and so was a preparation
for the interesting commemorative exercises in which
we are this day to take part. You will remember that
for exactly one year, — that is, from November, 1636, to
November, 1637, — the Rev. John Wheelwright labored
with the " Chappel of Ease " which was gathered in this
place. Then when Wheelwright and his friends were
banished, and many others had gone with them into vol-
untary exile, it was as though no band of worshippers
had ever come together here to listen to the " Word "
and to join in singing the sacred psalms. The church
at the Mount was effectually abolished. And we hear
nothing of a concerted movement to gather again a
church till the 16th of September, 1639. For a year
and ten months no sufficient number of the inhabitants
felt enough in heart to attempt a new organization.
The natural leaders of the people were gone, and those
of the liberal party who remained were sullen and
resentful.

34 THE CnUKCII OF STATESMEN.

It is not to be supposed, however, that there was
entire stagnation at the Mount. During this time there
was a great shifting of population and a great change
in the proprietorship of lands. The banished and the
exiled were selling their estates as rapidly as they could
to those pressing this way from Boston and from over
sea. Coddington's lands were bought at a bargain by
Capt. William Tyng, a Boston merchant, who sold them
over again ; and John Wheelwright disposed of his " great
possessions " at a sacrifice we may well believe. But the
new influx mingling with the " remnant " infused into
the settlement a more via;orous life. These later immi-
grants, some of whom most likely were passengers in
" the great store of ships " which arrived at Boston in
1638, had no vital interest in the recent controversy,
and were prepared to go forward in the course usual
with prospering plantations.

FIRST CnURCn GATHERED.

So on Monday, the 16th day of September, 1639, the
inhabitants of the Mount assembled to enter solemnly
into new church relations.^ The enterprise, however, has

^ The Rev. Mr. Ilanrock in his sermons preached "Sept. IC, 1739, on com-
pleting the first century since tlie gathering of " the First Church, is very careful
to state explicitly several times that our fathers were " embodied in a church-
state here this day an hundred years ago." Then in a note he furthermore
says, "The church was gathered on Momlay, Sept. Ifi, ICIJIi." Tt is some con-
firmation of this, were it needed, that "Sept. \C>, 1G.'?9, was ^londay," as Dr.
George E. Ellis assures me. When Mr. Hancock wrote his sermons he had in
his possession our oldest book of records, now lost. After amending a later
record by writing "IG" where some one had written "Sept. 17," he gives a
short account of the renewal of the covenant at the centennial anniversarv

FIRST CHURCH GATHERED. 35

a look as though it were suddenly conceived, as though
indeed it had been talked over " after meeting " in Bos-
ton the day before, and that then on the spur of the
moment ministers Tompson and Flynt had come to the
determination that the almost shepherdless sheep of this
pasture should forthwith be more conveniently provided
for. These two ministers were peculiarly fitted to or-
ganize a church here. Mr. William Tompson was then
a recent arrival in the colony. He shared none of the
bitterness toward liberals which had been harbored by
his brother ministers in the antinomian conflict, and was
prepared to act the pacificator in a kindly and charitable
spirit. His companion, Mr. Henry Flynt, was by disposi-
tion and open confession even more delicately adapted to
the situation. He was himself of the liberal party, and at
that very time was under censure for signing the petition
in behalf of Wheelwright. It was at the call of such
sympathetic leadership that the inhabitants of the Mount
came together once more to form a church of their own.
They were all there, men and women, their profound in-
terest in the occasion appearing in their solemn deport-
ment and subdued conversation. But not many of them
then entered into church relations. Seven had come to
be considered about the proper number with which to
begin a church. And so only six, with the two ministers,
actively participated in the important work. These six,
— George Rose, Stephen Kinsley, John Dassett, William

"on September 16th, being the Lord's day, 1739," ending with these words:
" See Ch. Govt, among ye Records of this Church." That covenant now exists
only in the copy he printed with his centennial discourses. Add ten days to
change from old to new style would make September 26 the pi-oper date of our
anniversary.

36 THE CHURCH OF STATESMEN.

Potter, Martin Saunders the tavern-keeper, and Gregory
Belcher, — new men mostly and small farmers, separated
themselves from the rest of the congregation as those
on the whole most free in their conscience and best
fitted by tlieir orthodoxy to begin so weighty a busi-
ness. Then, as was the fashion, they confessed their
sins one to another, made profession of their faith, were
consecrated by prayer, and in right brotherly way stood
up before the assembly and gave one another in solemn
covenant the hand of fellowship.

After this manner was the church founded. It should
have been an occasion of pious gladness, but there is to
be detected running through the proceedings a feeling of
constraint. In the covenant not only do they designate
themselves by such usual phrases as " poor unworthy
creatures," but they seem really troubled about " all the
remnants of anti-Christian pollution wherein sometimes
we have walked." They were trying, some of them, to
be properly sorry for their heresies, and to feel a due
amount of contrition. This was notably the case with
minister Flynt, who could not be brought to acknowledge
his error till some eight months later than this. With-
out doubt there were many in that assembly who, like
him, were straining their conscience to conclude they had
been in the wrong, and to bring themselves into agree-
ment with the prevailing theology. These were in suffi-
cient numbers, notwithstanding recent additions, to give
tone to the proceedings and character to the new-formed
church. It was in their minds, also, that the loss of their
chief men was a sad blow to tlie prosperity of the settle-
ment. Winthrop unconsciously draws attention to this.

FIRST MINISTERS AND DEACONS. 37

He and others, when it was first proposed to establish an
independent church at the Mount, were loath to give any
encouragement because so many " chief men " would be
withdrawn from Boston. Now, in writing of the found-
ing of our church in this September of 1639, he puts
down not a word about " chief men," but only that
" many poor men " petitioned to have a church. What
is done at the Mount is of so little concern now to Boston
that Winthrop does not remember accurately the day
when the church was gathered, nor the day when Tompson
was ordained.

FIRST MINISTERS AND DEACONS.

Accepting the Rev. John Hancock for best authority
(he was very careful what he wrote, and had before
him Teacher Flynt's record), we find that Tompson
was ordained pastor eight days after the church was
gathered ; that is, Tuesday, the 24th of September,
1639. Who the elders ofiiciating at this ordination
were we do not know ; but whoever they were they
would not at the same time ordain Henry Flynt as
teacher. He had not made his submission 3^et. But
the grave, conscientious young man (he was now about
thirty-two years old) at last avowed that he would peti-
tion to have his name blotted out from the paper writ-
ten in defence of Wheelwright; and so, on the 17th
of March following, he too was set over this church as
one of its ministers. His petition was granted by the
court the same day — May 13, 1640 — it granted the
inhabitants of the Mount liberty to incorporate them-

38 THE cnuRcn of statesmen.

selves as the town of Braintree. I cannot but think
it was similarity of belief which drew Henry Flynt to
the Mount. He was still liberal for all his recanta-
tion ; the broad mind and the tolerant spirit were
there, however pious his submission. Thus the church
continued to be an undogmatic, a progressive congre-
gation, with one minister, at least, entirely sympathetic.
Evidence of this I seem to see in the first choice for
deacon of Samuel Bass, who had been fined five pounds
" for contempt " about the time of the banishment of
Wheelwright ; ^ in " the desire of the church of Christ
at Mount Wollaston that Alexander Winchester," ^ Mr.
Vane's man, be dismissed from Boston church for their
help also in the ofiice of deacon ; and in the fact that
some of Mount Wollaston continued to " receive " at
Boston, as though affairs here were not entirely satis-
factory to them.^ Mr. Tompson may have been just
as liberal-minded as his colleague, but I speak espe-
cially of Mr. Flynt because he sustained a closer and
more constant relation with our church. The country
generally seemed to conclude that one minister was
enough for us, and made three several attempts to
divert our pastor to other duties. The ministers of
the colony, in prayerful session, selected him and an-
other to journey to Virginia and supply the means of
grace to such as could not find it in the ministrations
of the Church of England. He preached with power
and influenced many ; but the " Old Dominion " soon

1 Records of the General Court, Dec. 4, 163S.

2 Boston First Cluirch Records, July 12, 1()40.

' Lecbford's Plaine Dealing, p. 41, and note by J. II. Trumbull.

FIRST MINISTERS AND DEACONS. 39

drove him out, being as intolerant of Puritans as
Massachusetts was of Episcopalians. It might be in-
teresting to speculate upon the probable course of the
history of Virginia if the independency and moral ear-
nestness of the New England churches had obtained at
that time a strong and permanent hold upon the hearts of
the people there. But I must not be tempted aside ; I
would only interject the remark that thus early Brain-
tree began to regard Southern affairs. Hardly had
Tompson returned from this missionary journey when
he was chosen to accompany the army in the threat-
ened war with the Narragansetts. He was to blow a
silver trumpet before the host, and preach the word to
them. Of " tall, comely presence," quite military look-
ing, and also quite brave and obedient to all calls of
duty, he would have acquitted himself well. But the
war did not break out, and he returned to his pastoral
charge. Then in 1648 he was invited to settle over
the church Wheelwright had founded in Exeter, N. H.
That gentleman, fearing the advancing power of the
Massachusetts government, had fled to Wells. The offer
made to Tompson was liberal, — thirty pounds a year,
the profits of the town saw-mill, and the use of the
liouse and land bought of Wheelwright. But Tompson
resisted the temptation. What led those of Exeter,
one wonders, to send for Tompson ? Was it because
of what friends here wrote to the former dwellers at
the Mount there ? Did they recommend him as a wor-
thy successor of Wheelwright ? We can only guess ;
at all events, the church in Braintree prospered under
the ministration of its pastor and teacher, and all its

40 THE CHURCH OF STATESMEN.

aspirations, liberal or other, seemed satisfied. These
ministers passed away, — Tompson in 1666, Flynt in
1668, — leaving behind them the sweet remembrance of
their gravity, integrity, purity, and holiness. Of their
wives the least to be said is that they bequeathed to
this parish the names Abigail and Dorothy, which since
have been so highly honored.

STILL "THE SOUR LEVEN OF THOSE SINFUL OPINIONS."

A liberal party vigorously manifested itself in the
choice for successors of its first ministers. This party
was for calling the Rev. Josiah Flynt, son of their late
lamented teacher. Opposition was made on the ground
that the candidate had uttered '' divers dans-erous het-
erodoxies, delivered, and that without caution, in his
public preaching." Many meetings were had about it,
with ''very uncomfortable debates" and "awful divi-
sions." The liberals so far prevailed as to elect Mr.
Flynt and a Mr. Bulkeley ; but as the ballot was not
single and the quarrelling had been bitter, neither
would accept, and for four years the distracted church
continued without a settled minister. " The disorders
among us," wrote one of our members on a subsequent
occasion, " call for tears and lamentations, rather than
to bo remembered." This is very true ; and they are
mentioned now only to make it plain that in this
early period of our church's history there was no lack
of mental vipror and the manifestation of an indepen-
dent spirit. The very earnestness of the dispute and
its long continuance is evidence that these forefathers

THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE DESCRIBED. 41

of ours had strong convictions. Their religion was a
vital thing to them, and entirely possessed their hearts
and minds. Characteristic of the church from the earli-
est times has been its stubborn strength, its faithful-
ness to its ideals, its self-reliance, its almost rude
directness. These founders of our town were no lovers
of smooth words and compromises. " Poor men " they
might be in estate, but without question they were
rich in mental power and tenacious moral strength.
They stand forth as marked examples of the plain,
blunt, serious, conscientious English Puritan, of the tol-
erant Miltonic sort, sure of his ground, vigorous in the
defence of it, yet with face toward the larger view and
broader principle. And in the history of this church,
almost typical in its natural gradations, is the develop-
ment of religious belief and moral conviction through
wider statements and more liberal tendencies.

THE FIRST MEETIXG-nOUSE DESCRIBED.

The scene of these earlier religious adjustments was
the first meeting-house built by the settlers, the square
stone structure which was situated in the middle of what
is now Hancock Street, a little to the north of its junc-
tion with Canal Street. Tliore, on the tongue of land
which rose above the Town River swamps to the east and
west of it, the little building was conspicuous. I ima-
gine it was in shape like the old Hingham church, — a
platform rising from the apex of the roof, on which at
a later dav swung; a bell. Near the church, and erected

I/O '

almost as early, were the schoolhouse and the tavern, in-

42 THE CHUKCn OF STATESMEN.

stitutions having effects how opposite ! This place was
indeed the town centre, with its little square, or common.
The main road from Plymouth to Boston ran through it,
dividing when it came to the meeting-house, passing by
each end of it and uniting again just above the " meeting-
house bridge " over the Town-River. The Webb house in
which Mr. Jones now lives in the " hollow " is the only
one left of those which formerly stood near the meeting-
house in the town square. It was certainly built before
the year 1700, it may even have been occupied by Parson
Tompson, and faced toward the square on the line of
the road as it diverged to the eastward to go around the
meeting-house.

The church was entered by a door at the east end, and
very likely by another at the west end. The pulpit, as
I conjecture, was situated against the south wall, and
on either side of it running entirely around the building-
were galleries. In front of the pulpit were the deacons'
seats, where Samuel Bass, Richard Brackett, Benjamin
Saville, and other worthies "held out the box" to receive
the regular Sunday contribution as the congregation
flocked up and filed past. The seats for the worshippers
were at first plain, rude benches in two rows, — the women
occupying one row, the men the other. There was also
the women's gallery and the men's gallery. The '■' seat-
ing the meeting-house," — that is, the assigning to per-
sons the sixteen or eighteen inches of plank they were
to occupy for the year, — was always a delicate task, and
sometimes occasioned heart-burnings. Social rank and
moral worth and age were generally considered, but
money could not buy the best places as now. Free seats

THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE DESCRIBED. 43

and a certain equality before the Lord was the accepted
rule. The pew system was introduced the 15th of Janu-
ary, 1700 (to be precise). Then Capt. John Wilson was
granted liberty to make a pew in some convenient place.
He built his little pen in the back part of the meeting-
house against the wall ; then Minister Fiske built his by
the east window; next, Col. Edmund Quincy built his
by the side of Mr. Wilson's. And so they added pew
to pew, till the walls of the church all around were pos-
sessed by them. Only one part of the walls had neither
gallery nor pew against it. This was the space above
the pulpit. Then it was voted (I think it is with re-
gard to this earliest church) that a certain prominent
personage " might build him a pew over the pulpit, pro-
vided he so builds as not to darken the pulpit." The
late Josiah Quincy, in quoting this vote, wrote, —

" A friend of mine here suggests that, as a figure of speech,
pews may now be said to be built over the pulpit with some
frequency, and regrets that the good divines of the town, whose
life-long sway was arbitrary and unquestioned, did not have the
wit to prevent that perilous permission. For notwithstanding
the wholesome caution of the old record, it has been found im-
possible ' not to darken the pulpit ' when the pews are placed
above it."

Let the picture of that diminutive stone meeting-
house, as I have outlined it, take form in your minds.
Imagine it filled with your ancestors, with those whose
dust sanctifies the little cemetery yonder, the memory of
whose sterling virtues is to us a sacred possession. How
plain the interior ! — no color, no art, no large breadths
of space ; a place rude in its simplicity. And how de-

44 THE CHUECH OF STATESMEN.

void of art, also, the Sunday's service ! — a long prayer,
a long sermon, and the psalms slowly lined out, and
sung tunelessly almost.-^ Yet how serious the faces of
the worshippers ; how lit up with strong, noble rever-
ence ! Along the fore-seats sat the oldest among them.
" I shall never forget," wrote John Adams of a period
later than this, " the rows of venerable heads ranged
along those front benches which, as a young fellow, I
used to gaze upon." They bowed, all of them, — 3'oung
and old together, — before the Lord, and the thought
of His presence made their poor surroundings glorious.
How changed their attitude, however, during those
stormy meetings when " some were for Paul and some
for Apollos " ! Lieut. Edmund Quincy presiding in the
little pulpit is hardly able to keep the excited gathering
in order. A vigorous speaker will not have " hetero-
dox " Flynt on any account, and his words are greeted
with ready applause by some others like-minded. Cap-
tain Brackett and Deacon Bass and Goodman Faxon
are all up at once, uttering themselves in defence of
the right of a man to think for himself, and on the im-
portance of personal righteousness. And so the battle
goes en, and by it the Lord's work is done as effectu-
ally as in the Sunday worship. Truth emerges from
the tumult, and peace attends upon the more rational
convictions. There is no such trouble again, no '• awful
divisions " over charges of " heterodoxy." The liberal-
izing element, potent in the forming of the church, is

1 As lute as "■May 2C>, 1723, Major Quincy was fairly and clearly chosen
by written votes to the oflice of tunin!::^ the I'salni in our assemblies for f)ul)lic
worship." — " ITfil. March 2f>, Voted to sing Dr. Watts's hymns and spiritual
sonjirs on Sacramental occasions."

A CONGREGATION FORMED AT THE "SOUTH END." 45

potent still, and the congregation as a body drifts
complacently away from the stern continent of Calvin-
istic doctrine. When next there is earnest discussion
of dogma, it is manifest that virtually the entire con-
gregation is with the minister in his most liberal and
independent ideas.

In the period we are now considering, the congrega-
tion eventually so " moderated their spirits " that they
acquiesced when the County Court in November, 1671,
interfered, where so many other means had failed, and
sent '' Mr. Moses Fiske to improve his labors in preach-
ing the word at Braintry, until the church there agree
to obtain supply." This proved a quite fortunate as-
sumption, as at the close of his first Sunday of service
" about twenty of the brethren came to visit at Mr.
Flynt's, manifesting in the name of the church their
ready acceptance of what the court had done ; " and
two months later " the church, by their messengers,"
as Mr. Fiske records, " did jointly and unanimously
desire my settlement amongst them. . . . The day of
my solemn espousals to this church and congregation "
was the lltli of September, 1G72. He was then thirty
years old, and for a period of thirty-six years "was
zealously diligent for God and the good of men, — one
who thought no labor, cost, or suffering too dear a
price for the good of his people."

A CONGREGATION FORMED AT THE "SOUTH END."

It was during his pastorate that the town was
divided into the north and south precincts. Not with-

46 THE CHURCH OF STATESMEN.

out calling " forth a great deal of human nature " was
this accomplished. Those who lived far away in the
south part of the town were becoming painfully conscious
that it was a long distance to " meeting, and through
such bad ways, whereby the Lord's day, which is a day
of rest, was to them a day of labor rather." Reasona-
bly enough, they asked that a new and larger edifice be
built at a pomt more central. The old stone meeting-
house was at this time much out of repair, and very
plainly also it could not adequately accommodate the
growing parish. Accordingly, at a town-meeting in
1695 it was " voted that a new meeting-house should
be erected." " This," writes Mr. C. F. Adams the
younger, " did not meet the views of old Col. Ed-
mund Quincy and others who lived in the northern
limits ; consequently they went to work to prevent an}--
thing being done at all, and at a private meeting held
at Colonel Quincy's they ' did agree among themselves
to shingle the old house, pretending to be at the whole
charge themselves.' But, none the less, ' several pounds
were afterwards gathered by a rate upon the whole
town.' " Tlien they of the south began to talk about
organizing a separate church. This project was also
opposed, on the ground that the burden of paying
Minister Fiske his eighty or ninety pounds a year
would fall upon a reduced number in the north. So
north and south had "much sinful discourse" between
them, and " some misapprehension about church disci-
pline." However, on the second day of jNhiy, 1706,
the frame of a new meeting-house was raised in the
south part of the town ; and at a town-meeting the

ADJUSTMENT WITH THE CHUECH OF ENGLAND. 47

next November it was voted, as gracefully as the cir-
cumstances would permit, " that as there were two
meeting-houses erected in this town, the south end
shall be a congregation by themselves." On the 10th
of September, 1707, the Rev. Hugh Adams was or-
dained pastor of the South Church ; but the contention
over finances was only ended with the death of Mr.
Fiske, Aug. 10, 1708.

ADJUSTMENT WITH THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

During the ministry of Mr. Fiske his congregation
was also agitated over the appearance in town of the
Church of England. How these " prelatists " got estab-
lished in this Puritan settlement, whether by immigra-
tion or by conversion of degenerate Congregationalists,
it would be interesting to ascertain. We know that
in Boston a few early appeared in the train of the
king's officers, and that with the advent of Andros in
1686 that town was forced to adjust itself to regular
assemblies of the hated worship. Next to residents of
Boston, the people here were first among Congregation-
alists to be called upon to solve the problem of how to
live with the church which numbered the ^'martyr king"
— Charles 1. — with the saints, and named all the lead-
ers of the Puritan revolution as " violent and blood-
thirsty men." It was a question bristling with ani-
mosities. The English Church was then foreign to our
soil and unrecognized by law, yet it claimed the king's
colonies for the prayer-book and the prelacy. A mem-
ber of that Church, asking assistance for his fellow-

48 THE CIIURCn OF STATESMEN.

worshippers here, wrote in 1702: '' Brantry should be
minded; it is in the heart of New England, and a
learned and sober man would do great good and en-
courage the other towns to desire the like. If the
Church can be settled in New England it pulls up
schisms in America by the root, that being the foun-
tain that supplies, with infectious streams, the rest of
America." The schismatics of " Brantry " were not at
all eager to be pulled up. On the contrary, they were
rather strongly inclined to do some uprooting them-
selves. However, in spite of their longings they really
did treat the members of the Church of England hand-
somely. According to Puritan law, these prelatists as
well as all others were taxed for the support of the
Puritan churches, and were required to attend the stated
meetings of them when they had no services of their
own. But how charitably this church dealt with them
let the Rev. John Hancock tell : —

" I verily think tlie conduct of this church and congregation
towards our brethren of the Church of England has been Chris-
tian and exemplary. I will mention several instances of it to
the glory of God and their praise. In the vacancy before the
Tlcv. ]\Ir. Miller received holy orders for this place, this church
admitted to their communion all such members of the Church
of England as desired to have occasional communion with us,
and allowed them what posture of devotion they pleased, and
they used to receive the sacrament standing. . . . This parish,
upon ;Mr. Miller's coming, reimbursed to tlie declared members
of the Church of Engbmd their proportion of the charge of my
settlement, and generously excused them from any further pay-
ments towards my support."

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vs. .\t ./;_•; ; lot 2, twelve, at /i; eacli." e:c.

MEETING-HOUSES LESS THAN MEN. 49

It gives me pleasure to quote these words of the Rev.
Mr. Hancock, for they clearly testify to the tolerant
spirit vt^hich even at that early day prevailed here.
Indeed, we can say that no single act of persecution
for opinion's sake stains our history. Is this not owing
in some measure to the words and example of Wheel-
wright; to the inclination toward what is broad and
humane wrought by his labors ?

MEETING-HOUSES LESS THAN MEN.

This same Mr. Hancock who thus praises toleration
and Christian courtesy, was himself an exponent and
example of brotherly kindness and charity and what-
ever is most substantial in religion. In our chronology
he follows the faithful Joseph Marsh, who was installed
May 18, 1709, and in a spiritual succession ranks with
the best of our ministers. Ordained May 2, 1726, he
was the last pastor to lead the devotions of this church
in the old meeting-house. Its leaks and fissures admit-
ting in winter's storms cartloads of snow, were no more
to be " repaired." A new church was at last to be built.
The site first proposed was " at Colonel Quincy's gate ; "
then where the old meeting-house stood ; but it was de-
cided eventually to place it "at the ten milestone, or
near unto it." This was exactly fixed ''on the train-
ing-field" a little to the south of the "ten milestone."

Mr. Hancock thought the compassing a new house
of worship was the great achievement of his ministry.
When he records its dedication, Oct. 8, 1732, he spon-
taneously breaks forth into praises in the sonorous Latin

4

60 THE CHURCH OF STATESMEN.

speech. As it stood there on the training-field, fair and
beautiful in his ej^es, he felt it to be a glorious monu-
ment of the energy of his people, destined to win for
them great respect and influence. But however notable
that event, its influence in shaping the destiny and es-
tablishing the character of this society was as nothing
compared with two other happenings seemingly ordinary
enough. These two items stand in his record of bap-
tisms: "John, son of John Adams, Oct. 26, 1735," and
"John Hancock, my son, Jan. 16, 1736-7." Proud as
a father, no doubt, he was on the latter occasion ; but
proud for his church he might well have been on both
occasions. The son of the deacon and the son of the
minister were to bring more fame to First Church
and add more to its character and influence than any
temple of wood or stone, however spacious and costly.
How true it is that evermore it is not the material
environment but the spirit which emanates from man
or God, — the truth, the patriotism, the faith, the in-
tegrity,— which establishes the fame of all institutions,
and makes effectual all the noble power of them ! Here-
tofore, through many years, children of this church had
become notable. The Quincy family especially, in every
generation since the first Edmund came from England
in 1633, had given to the country magistrates, military
officers, representatives, judges. The church had a
share in their fame and the unfailing assistance of
their wealth and wisdom. Now with these were to be
enrolled John Hancock, the liberal patriot and honora-
ble Governor, and John Adams, the Puritan statesman
of the Revolution, anticipating Independence with Puri-

I .!/;■>■. joliii Adiiiiis.j

isoo.

AGi:n :.i;.

JOHN ADAMS,
1800.

AGED '.0.

'' ON fame's eternall bead-eoll." 51

tan conscience, and advocating it with Puritan persist-
ence; the Chief Magistrate —

" Of soul sincere,
In action faithful and in honor clear ;
Who broke no promise, served no private end."

He was such a man as the best traditions and great prin-
ciples of our early New England life tended to make.
This church proudly claims him ; perceives his original
mental force, his moral independence and fervor, to be
consonant with its centuries of teaching.

" ON" fame's eternall bead-roll."

How many other statesmen, all after this same order,
have been born to us ! From the unbroken and ascend-
ing line of the Quincys still have issued men prominent
in public life who belonged to us, though baptized, it may
be, in the metropolis which with this place they honored
as their home. John Quincy, one of the most active men
in colonial affairs, for many years Speaker of the House
and Colonel of the Suffolk Regiment, was a life-long mem-
ber of this church, and for a quarter of a century or more
the favorite presiding officer of parish meetings. And
who so constant an attendant upon the services of this
church, all through the long months of his summer so-
journ among us, as " Boston's Great Mayor" and repre-
sentative to Congress, Josiah Quincy ? His tall manly
form and reverent aspect are still clear in the minds of
many of this congregation. Other public and notable
men you will call to remembrance, — Thomas Greenleaf,
Richard Cranch, — yet I must not stop to name them,

52 THE CHURCH OF STATESMEN.

but hurry on to speak of him, the son of a President and
President himself, whose character and achievements are
of that high moral and intellectual order which in any
age would render him illustrious. For record of his
earliest connection with this church I resort again to the
time-worn annals of the ministers. This time the writ-
ing is that of old Parson Wibird, and under the headline
"Baptisms, 1767," reads, " Jn? Quincy, S. Jn° Adams,
July 12." The child John Quincy Adams, schooled and
trained into manhood in a remarkably practical and lib-
eral fashion, shows himself more essentially a Puritan
than even his father. His piety, his devotion to truth
and right, his indomitable will, all mark him as a genuine
descendant of those who surrendered all to live in accord
with the spiritual intent and spiritual principles of the
universe. The broad New England church in the world
of affairs never had truer representative. His high aims,
and methods as high, exalted the office of President ; and
later he was the " old man eloquent," whose voice to his
last hour rang clear and unfaltering in defence of liberty
and human rights. For all his great renown and high
public station, his name is frequently to be met with in
our church records on committees appointed to represent
the consrresration at Unitarian conventions and instal-
lations of ministers. Entirely one with this society
in spirit, he also identified himself with its practical
administrations.

And still the line stretches out with no abatement in
mental ability or moral force. His son, Charles Francis
Adams, so lately gathered to his fathers and mourned by
a nation which appreciates in constantly increasing degree

" ON fame's eternall bead-roll." 53

his fine and forceful character and measureless services,
was a statesman by birth and acquirements. Every pub-
lic position to which he was elevated he honored ; and we
do not need to remind you how as Minister to England
during the war for the Union his clear intelligence and
resolute moral strength prevented battles, converted a
formidable foe to a friend, and in calm diplomatic coun-
cils did as much to preserve this nation as did Grant in
the rough open field of war. This great man also belongs
to us ; proudly we claim him as we claim his fathers, —
ours by blood and preference. " He loved to come here.
He loved to frequent the house of God always. It was
his never-failing weekly resort. Religion was not merely
the daily practice of his home, — it was the centre of
his life." 1

But I have said enough ; more than is needful I have
named of those " on Fame's eternall bead-roll," to demon-
strate the distinctive character of this church among even
New England churches. It is The CnuRcn of States-

o

men, — every man of them (it is the luminous fact to be
cherished) magnanimoas, sincere, and genuine, and illus-
trating in the face of the world the eternal principles
of the Christian religion here taught and reverenced.
To their influence and fame it is owing that this church
is known throughout the land, and that pilgrimages are
made to it. To their influence, do I say ? But not to
theirs alone. Who can resist the thought that its vir-
tuous and noble women, — Mrs. Abigail Adams, Mrs.
John Quincy Adams, Mrs. Charles Francis Adams, Miss

^ Dr. William Everett, " Address in Commemoration of the Life and Ser-
vices of Charles Francis Adams."

54 THE CHURCH OF STATESMEN.

Eliza Susan Qiiincy, — add a gracioiisness to that dis-
tinction and make it entirely beautiful in character?

This peculiarity of our church has a recognition of long
standing. Josiah Quincy, in his " Figures of the Past,"
writes, —

" All air of respectful deference to John Adams seemed to
pervade the building. The ministers brought their best sermons
when they came to exchange, and had a certain consciousness
in their manner as if officiating before royalty. The medley of
stringed and wind instruments in the gallery, — a survival of
the sacred trumpets and shaums mentioned by King David, —
seemed to the imagination of a child to be making discord
together in honor of the venerable chief who was the centre
of interest."

But however admired and reverenced, these great men
were still Puritans in their simplicity and entire submis-
sion to the Highest. They venerated their little village
church and its worship. Called b}' their official duties to
sojourn in the great cities of Europe, they were witnesses
of the pageantry of courts in which no ceremony was left
out ; they mingled with the brilliant concourse which
thronged the gay salojis ; they listened to the majestic
harmonies in the magnificent cathedrals of England and
the Continent, — and yet they returned with content, and
with an even increased devotion, to the plain ordinances
and unadorned principles of their fathers. In their loy-
alty, as well as their fame, they honored the Church of
Christ in this place. When travelling in Spain, John
Adams forbore to bow before a shrine reverently shown
him, containing some sacred ndics. The shocked custo-
dian inquired in French of the archbishop who was doing

ui^A. oi^

^^^O'pIyC^

FIEST CHURCH PROGRESSIVE STILL. 00

the honors of the occasion, " Is not the gentleman a
Christian ? " " Yes," answered the prelate, " in his own
way." These honored men of our communion, what-
ever the place they were in, or the pomp by which they
were surrounded, were Christians in their own way, —
the way they were taught here in this church and

" At that best academe, a mother's knee."
FIRST CHURCH PROGRESSIYE STILL.

It might easily be taken for granted that a church
which nurtured men and women so thoughtful and
broadly intelligent would dispense no narrow belief;
and, in truth, the slightest investigation shows that in
this regard it was singular among even New England
churches. The liberal spirit so early interfused appears
in the utterance of every one of its greatest preachers.
The sermons of the Rev. John Hancock written to com-
memorate the close of the first century of our church's
history, are remarkable for what he deliberately does
not say. In them there is entire absence of Calvinistic
dogma. Already the cruder phases of Puritanism had
been discarded. It was during his ministry, too, that
'' some persons of a sober life and good conversation sig-
nified their unwillingness to join in full communion with
the church, unless they may be admitted to it without
making a public relation of their spiritual experiences,
which (they say) the church has no warrant in the word
of God to require." So a '' great majority " voted they
would not " any more insist upon the making a rela-
tion as a necessary form of full communion." But it is

56 THE CnURCH OF STATESMEN.

when we come to the Rev. Lemuel Briant that we find
liberalism self-conscious and aggressive. This minister,
a young man of twenty-four when he succeeded Mr.
Hancock in the September of 1745, is characterized as
intellectuall}^ a remarkable man. Certainly he was as
waiter and preacher brilliant, incisive, independent, and
possessing little regard for conventionalities. " Had he
lived he might have held his ground, and succeeded in
advancing by one long stride the tardy progress of liberal
Christianity in Massachusetts." He neglected to teach
the children of his parish the catechism, preferring plain
Scripture ; he was guilty, said his opponents, of " the
absurdity and blasphemy of substituting the personal
righteousness of men in the room of the surety-righteous-
ness of Christ ; " he praised moral virtue ; he protested
against such interpretation of the Bible as affronted
human reason. For this he was called " Socinian " and
" Armenian," and a council of sister churches was sum-
moned to try him. With an independence almost un-
heard of, he slighted the council and would not go near
it. But as it declared there existed grounds for the com-
plaints against him, a committee of his own church was
appointed to consider the matter. Col. John Quincy was
at the head of this committee, and it reported a series of
resolutions which may fairly be regarded as remarkable
for the times. They were adopted by almost the entire
church, the few " aggrieved brethren " seeming to be
quite pacified. In these resolutions the people defended
their pastor's use of " pure Scripture " instead of the cate-
chism ; and they honored the right of private judgment,
commending " Mr. Briant for the pains he took to pro-

JOI-IN QUINCY Ai:
17'JCJ.

LOUISA C/.THKRIN ]£ ADAMS,
(.1/rs. •/'. .v^. .'.(la /US.)

1795.

FIRST CHURCH PROGRESSIVE STILL. 57

mote a free and impartial examination into all articles
of our holy religion, so that all may judge even of them-
selves what is right."

Upon such broad foundation this church placed itself
seventy years before Channing preached the famous Bal-
timore sermon, which precipitated the separation of the
Unitarian churches from the main body of Congregation-
alists. In principle it was a Unitarian church long be-
fore the liberal aspirations of New England had taken
definite shape and name. To this John Adams gives his
testimony. He was a growing lad during the contro-
versy over the beliefs of Mr. Briant, and its effect upon
himself was manifest in his rejection of the ministry as
a profession ; as he wrote, " the reason of my quitting
the divinity was my opinion concerning some disputed
points." Through all the phases of a developing liberal
Christianity he with vigorous thinking then passed, and
many fellow-parishioners with him; so that in 1815, when
at last the Unitarian outbreak occurred, he could write
as follows to Dr. Morse of Charlestown, who had sent him
a pamphlet setting forth the new opinions : —

" I thank you for your favor of the 10th and the pamphlet
enclosed, entitled 'American Unitarianism.' I have turned over
its leaves and find nothing that was not familiarly known to me.
In the preface, Unitarianism is represented as only thirty years
old in New England. I can testify as a witness to its old age.
Sixty-five years ago my own minister, the Rev. Lemuel Briant,
Dr. Jonathan Mayhew of the West Church in Boston, the Rev. Mr.
Steele of Hingham, the Rev. John Brown of Cohasset, and per-
haps equal to all, if not above all, the Rev. Mr. Gay of Hingham,
were Unitarians. Among the laity how many could I name, —
lawyers, physicians, tradesmen, farmers ! But at present I will

68 THE CHURCH OF STATESMEN.

name only one, — Richard Cranch, a man who had studied
divinity, and Jewish and Christian antiquities, more than any
clergyman now existing in New England."

The minister who followed Mr. Briant may have been
as liberal, but he was not at all aggressive in his religious
or other opinions.^ In the company of the Rev. Anthony
Wibird '* something is to be learned of human nature,
human life, love, courtship, marriage," wrote the stirring
and ambitious John Adams at twenty-two ; '' but his
opinion out " of these things " is not very valuable. His
soul is lost in a dronish effeminacy." Somewhat later
in 1775, Boston then being besieged by the patriots,
Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, " I could not bear
to hear our inanimate old bachelor. Mrs. Cranch and I
took our chaise and went to hear Mr. Haven of Dedham ;
and we had no occasion to repent our eleven miles ride."
But however the " inanimate old bachelor " whose opin-
ions were chiefly valuable as they regarded " courtship
and marriage " might drone away, his church continued
to expand in thought and to gain clearer conceptions of
"moral virtue." In a marked degree it was a church
whose power was in its pews, and thus a good example of

1 1755, Feb. 5. We wont to Braintree, joined in the ordination Council.
Mr. "Wibird the candidate, having (upon examination of his i)rinei])les, par-
ticularly about the Deity of Christ, the satisfaction he made to the justice of
God for the sins of men, oriirinal sin, and the influence of the spirit of God,
and our justifying righteousness before God) given satisfaction to the Council,
they voted to proceed to his ordination. Rev. ^Mr. Langdon of Portsmoutii
began with prayer ; Rev. Mr. Appleton, who was chosen member of the Council
upon the venerable Mr. Xiles declining it, j)reaclie(l from Levi. x. 3. The
Rev. Mr, Gay of llinfrham being chosen upon Mr. Xiles declining it, gave the
charge ; and I being chosen gave the right hand of fellowship. — 3ISS. Record
of lie c. Mr. Dunbar of Stoufjhlon, now Canton.

"AS IT IS TO THIS DAY." 59

worshippers after the Congregational order, — a society of
" the brethren." In diaries and records one discerns how
alive are these farmers, lawyers, and physicians to facts
and principles of real religion ; how keen for moral dis-
tinctions, how impatient of cant. So through the forty-
five years during which Parson Wibird preached (a man
"withal of great dignity, and beloved and respected by
his people," as the Rev. Peter Whitney testifies), the
church slowly drifted onward upon the stream of rational
religion toward a world of higher thoughts and nobler
aspirations.

"AS IT IS TO THIS DAY."

By the time Peter Whitney was ordained, the 5th of
February, 1800, the church was fairly set in this direc-
tion, and had no changes to make, no controversy to
disturb it, when Channing's sermon forced the congrega-
tions of New England to take sides. Good, kind, pleasant-
spoken Peter Whitney, — there are men and women with
us still who remember him well, who were baptized by
him, even married by him. They like to tell of his genial
humor and plain human ways. The great event of his
ministry was the dedication of the " Stone Temple " on
the twelfth day of November, 1828. By the munificence
of John Adams and the encouragement of his son John
Quincy Adams was this temple erected " for the public
worship of God, and for public instruction in the doc-
trines and duties of the Christian religion." With its
marble tablets and tomb, " durable as the rocks of their
native town," it has become a notable monument to their
services and character.

60 THE CHURCH OF STATESMEN".

On the 3d day of June, 1835, the Eev. William Parsons
Liint was installed as colleague with Mr. "Whitney. A
melancholy interest attaches to his name, partly on ac-
count of his pensive and earnest character, but most be-
cause of his untimely death far from home and friends
while, travelling in the Holy Land.

*' But oh that the thoughtful scholar, —
His mind at its fullest noon, —
That the preacher's tongue
And the poet's song
Should pass away so soon ! "

In the sands of Arabian Akaba his dust was interred, —
ho-w distant from the " tombs of the prophets," his prede-
cessors, in our burial-place which he was so careful to
preserve ! Dr. Lunt, always meditating upon the highest
themes, led his people still on where reason joined with
reverence showed the way. Famed for scholarship and
poetic gifts, he is ranked among the ablest of the minis-
ters of the First Church. His discourse delivered at
the interment of his venerated parishioner John Quincy
Adams, is " worthy of a place by the side of any funeral
oration of ancient or modern times," and his two dis-
courses written for the Two Hundredth Anniversary of
this church are remarkable for careful statement, exten-
sive research, and perspicuity of style. By these and
other productions of his pen he obtained great renown.

Mr. John D. Wells was ordained Dr. Lunt's successor
the 27th of December, 1860. Coming here just on the
eve of the great Civil War, Mr. Wells threw liimself with
passionate devotion upon the side of the Union, and not
only inspired his parishioners with patriotic feelings, but

"AS IT IS TO THIS DAY." 61

liimself enlisted and led the way where actions more
eloquently spoke. Received with hearty welcome when
he returned from the front, he once more took up his
duties among you, and with entire faithfulness performed
them till failing health obliged him to resign. Your
manifest affection for him is greater praise than I may
presume to render.

For four years before my own installation you were
without a settled pastor. During that time you listened
to many preachers. A few of them cannot but be men-
tioned, — such as Dr. William Everett, whose presence
with us this day is denied us owing to his severe illness ;
Dr. A. P. Putnam, who occupied this pulpit for several
months, and who was invited to remain here perma-
nently ; and the Rev. E. C. Butler, who twice was urged
to become the minister of this parish.

Finally, on the 24th of March, 1880, I was installed
your minister. I hardly dare confess how hard it has
been to rightly labor with a " plentiful lack " of self-
confidence, and how poor the labor seems for the most
part, now at the end of ten years. But you have con-
tinued your activities, dispensing a constant charity,
manifesting an unfailing interest in the advancement of
pure Christianity and moral reforms. Many, very many
have passed away from among us; yet we have grown,
and the promise of the future is inspiring.

The most memorable event which has occurred among
you since I have been your minister was the ending of
the earthly existence of our great fellow-worshipper, the
Hon. Charles Francis Adams. On Tuesday the 23d of
November, 1886, this church was opened to receive his

62 THE CnUECH OF STATESMEN.

remains, and after the solemn and simple service befitting
the occasion, they were borne hence to be interred in the
soil he loved so well. Again for a high and solemn pur-
pose was the church opened the 4th of July, 1887, when
Dr. William Everett delivered his noble address in com-
memoration of the life and services of Mr. Adams. Mrs.
Adams did not long survive her husband ; she too passed
away full of years and beloved by all. Another notable
event which may be mentioned is the erection and dedi-
cation of our chapel a year ago ; and perhaps it is also
worthy of record that at last this is not the only Uni-
tarian church within the limits of the ancient town
of Braintree. October 23, 1887, the present flourishing
Unitarian society at WoUaston, under the charge of the
Rev. W. S. Key, was started ; and for a year or more
the Rev. J. F. Moors, D. D., has been preaching to a very
vigorous congregation of our faith in Randolph.

"the conclusion of the whole matter."

In this pleasant anniversary celebration our interest
chiefly has been with the past. We have sought to un-
derstand the vanished times, and make the people of
them live once more. During these last months, while
thus looking backward, passing strange to me has seemed
this show of things. Gone are all those sons of men who
here toiled and fretted, hoped and aspired. Seven suc-
cessive generations of them have swept out from the
unknown, and into the unknown have vanislunl again.
The ambitious statesmen, the mother not to Ije comforted
in the loss of her child, the passionate patriot, the disso-

CHAHLES P'HANCIS ADAMS.

18G0.

AGED (i2.

V J^^^P^^

1

^". - '

m -

-■.'*f' ■f"'-'"-' "■

/

^^ ^M^ '

^'.' -hir ..jM

m

WP

i

All [GAIL BROOKS A DA MR,

(.nrs. C. r. .hfaws.)

1S71.

AGED 03.

THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 63

lute brawler of the tavern, — those whom hardly a world
would content, and those whom a crust satisfied, — have
disappeared for evermore. Ah, it is pathetic, tragic, not
to be understood ! All that remains with us is a name,
and the good they have done. The good they have done !
It is the remembrance of that which brings us here to-
day. We are glad to unite in praise of that. We wel-
come this distinguished point in our church's history to
praise goodness and all sacrifices for truth. These re-
main, these virtues of the men and women of the past, —
a priceless heritage and a ceaseless inspiration.

And all the good work wrought by them and the fair
lives of them belong peculiarly to you. Your predeces-
sors they are, — this church theirs and yours. The same
names are borne by many of you that were borne by the
founders of the society. Are you sensible of the signifi-
cance of that ? Do you realize what it is to be in the
place of your fathers, and to be continuing their work ?
In the great migration of peoples now proceeding, when
millions are travelling far to make themselves new
homes, it is something to be valued to be permitted to
continue where your own have occupied for generations.
This church should be to you your Mecca, your Jerusa-
lem ; every part of it and its surroundings a memorial,
every name a history. From pew and pulpit, from the
highways leading to this temple, from " God's acre " ad-
joining, visionary forms should greet you, each with its
separate message, pleasant, pathetic, admonitory. A
place this for thoughts, a place to engage the heart's
deepest affections. And for those who later have set-
tled here there is much to move and uplift. Is not the

64

THE CHURCH OF STATESMEN.

wealth of our traditions for all, and the joy of laboring
together for all, and the promise for all that " the glory
of this latter house shall be greater than that of the
former " ? God grant that in faithfulness we bring this
to pass, and make this church not merely a remembrance
in the land, but a present, a living power!

GRAVESTOXES OF PASTOR TOMPSOX AND TEACHER FLYNT.

i639 1889

Commemorative Services.

COMPLETION OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS

SINCE THE GATHERING OF THE

firi3t C^utcl) of O^ri^t in )©mncr.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 29, 1889,

AT 2 P. M.

HISTORICAL DISCOURSES BY THE PASTOR: SEPT. 22, AT 10.30 A.M.,
"THE CHAPPEL OF EASE," WHEELWRIGHT'S CHURCH AT THE MOUNT;
SEPT. 29, 10.30 A.M., THE ORGANIZATION OF FIRST CHURCH AND ITS
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.

ORDER OF EXERCISES.

4^c0an l^oluntacp.
Gloria from the Twelfth Mass Mozart.

3;nbocation,
The Rev. Roderick Stebbins, Pastor of the First Church in Milton.

" O Sing unto the Lord " Chandler.

;$)cripture ;^riectioni*.

The Rev. G. Herbert IIosiMEr, Pastor of the Church of the Unity in

Neponset.

jaujSic.
Ilymn, by Sternhold Northfield.

^^taper.
The Rev. Alfred P. Putnam, D.D.

iEujSic.
Response, *' Bow down thine ear " Davenport.

The Rev. Daniel Munho Wilson, Pastor.

John Quixcy Adams Brackett, Lieut. -(lovcrnor of ^lassachusctts.

The Rev. Stoppord Wentwortii Brooke, Pastor of the First Church in

Boston.

Mu^ic,

Sacred Song

Solo.

Charles Francis Adams.
The Rev. Alfred A. Ellsworth, Pastor of the First Parish Congrega-
tional Church of Braintree.
Josiau Quincy.

Mmic.

Hymn written for the 200th Anniversary, by John Quincy Adams.

Alas ! how swift the moments fly !

How flash the years along !
Scarce here, yet gone already by,

The burden of a song.
See childhood, youth, and manhood pass.

And age, with furrowed brow ;
Time was ; Time shall be, — drain the glass, ■

But where in Time is now ?

Time is the measure but of change ;

No present hour is found ;
The past, the future, fill the range

Of Time's unceasing round.

Where, then, is Now ? In realms above,

With God's atoning Lamb,
In regions of eternal love.

Where sits enthroned 1 Am.

Then, pilgrim, let thy joys and tears

On Time no longer lean ;
But henceforth all thy hopes and fears

From earth's affections wean :
To God let votive accents rise ;

With truth, with virtue, live;
So all the bliss that Time denies

Kternity shall give.

pQcm.
Christopher Pearse Cranch.

" Oh, Praise the Lord " J. B. Marsh.

The Rev. CnniSTOPnER R. Eliot, Pastor of the First Church in Dorchester.

The Rev. James de Xormandie, Pastor of the First Church in Roxbury.

The Rev. Joseph Osgood, Pastor of the First Church in Cohasset.

Mwic.
Old Hundred.

*25cnet)iction.

The Rev. Edward Xorton, Pastor of the Evangelical Congregational
Church of Quincy.

The First Church of Christ in Braintree was Embodied Sep. 16, 1639.

Record of the Rev. John Hancock.

MINISTERS OF FIRST CHURCH.

{William Tompson, Pastor, ordained September 24, 1639 ; died Decem-
ber 10, 1G66.
Henry Flynt, Teacher, ordained March 17, 1640; died April 27, 1668.

MIOSES Fiske, ordained September 11, 1672; died August 10, 1708.

Joseph Marsh, ordained May 18, 1709; died March 8, 1725-6.

John Hancock, ordained November 2, 1726 ; died May 7, 1774.

Lemuel Briant, ordained December 11, 1745; resigned October 22, 1753.

Anthony Wibird, ordained February 5, 1755 ; died June 4, 1800.

Peter Whitney, ordained February 5, 1800 ; died March 3, 1843.

William Parsons Luxt, ordained June 3, 1835; died March 21, 1857.

John Doaxe AVells, ordained December 27, 1860; resigned May 28, 1876.

Daniel Munro Wilson, installed March 24, 1880.

COMMEMOEATIVE SERVICES.

I "HE day on which the celebration occurred was bright,
-*- and tempered with a pleasant air. Some who were
present at the services in the morning remained in the
church till the afternoon. These, together with a large
number who arrived in an early afternoon train, were
provided with refreshments in the chapel. Long before
the hour appointed the church was full, and by two o'clock
every part of it was occupied. An animated and beautiful
scene was presented. The pulpit and its immediate sur-
roundings were decorated with plants and flowers, a mas-
sive cross of golden-rod suspended against the wall back of
the pulpit being particularly noticeable from its contrast
with the dark maroon draperies which formed its back-
ground. The memorial tablets to Presidents John and
John Quincy Adams were decked with laurel wreaths,
while the dates " 1639 " and " 1889," wrought in green
leaves, were conspicuously displayed upon the walls.

After the " Gloria " was sung by the choir, the Rev.
Roderick Stebbins offered the following invocation :

IXVOCATION BY THE REV. R. STEBBINS.

0 Thou almighty and mysterious One ! Thou who art with-
out a beginning of days or an end of years ! we come to Thee ;
we call upon Thy name, we beseech Thy holy presence, we wor-

70 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

ship Thee in prayer and praise and spoken word. We come
to Thee on a day of memory, when the century past and gone
leaves our minds grateful that we have been so blest. We trust
in Thee, Thou almighty giver of all good ; and may we ac-
knowledge Thee in the rejoicings and in the thanksgivings of
the hour. May we acknowledge Thee to be our Father, — the
Father of the generation past, and Father of the generation yet
to come. Amen.

The Rev. G. H. Hosmer read a selection of very ap-
propriate passages from the Scripture, immediately after
which the choir broke forth in the noble paraphrase of
the XVIIIth Psalm by Sternhold, which ends with this
stanza : —

" The Lord descended from above, and bowed the heavens high,
And underneath His feet he east the darkness of the sky ;
On cherubs and on cherubins full royall}- he rode,
And on the wings of all the winds came flying all abroad."

The Rev. A. P. Putnam, D. D., then offered the fol-
lowing prayer : —

PRAYER BY THE REV. A. P. PUTNAM, D. D.

0 God, eternal and infinitely glorious One, whom the heaven
of heavens cannot contain, yet who dwcllcst in temples which
our hands have built, and in the secret recesses of every sincere
and faithful soul ! help us who are here before Thee to feel Thy
presence and to celebrate Thy goodness, as we thus enter into
these LTutes with thanksgiving, and into these courts with praise,
and would fain bless and magnify Thy great and holy name.
Reminded as we are by this impressive anniversary how the
generations come and go, and how change is written on all
earthly things, we come to Thee, and find strength and com-
fort in the thought that Thou art from everlasting to everlast-

OPENING EXERCISES. 71

ing, — the one sure rock and refuge, almighty Father and
Friend of us all forever and ever. The fathers, where are they ?
Where, but still with Thee in whom they put their trust, and to
whom they were faithful even unto death ? And in Thee, iu
Thee, 0 Lord our God, we would also repose our trust, while
we pray that we ♦may receive of Thy spirit and do Thy will.
Here, on this consecrated ground, where they toiled and tended
this vine that grew to such goodly growth and abundant fruit, —
toiled to found the beneficent institutions under which we live
and thrive, — we would thank Thee for all their pious labors
and examples, and for their rich bequests to the future. We
thank Thee for this ancient church of their care and love, and
for all the signal favors which Thou hast vouchsafed unto
it in all its continued history from the first to the last. We
thank Thee for the long line of earnest and devoted pastors
who have here preached Thy word, and had so many souls
given them as the seals of their ministry and the crown of
their rejoicing. We thank Thee for that great company of
godly men and saintly women who have reverently trodden
these aisles and bowed themselves here in prayer, and lifted
unto Thee the voice of sacred song, and communed with the
Christ, and sought to be in his likeness, and so entered into their
rest. We thank Thee for all those kind and excellent teachers,
and active and useful workers, who have here wisely instructed
and lovingly guided throng after throng of tender youth, or in
manifold other ways have wrought good for this community in
which they lived. We thank Thee also for the many illustrious
statesmen, rulers, reformers, and philanthropists who have here
had their birth or home, and who have here caught lessons of wis-
dom and virtue and duty which they have carried forth to larger
spheres, where in our own land or abroad, in calm or storm, in
darkness or in sunshine, they have dedicated their gifts and their
all to the welfare of their country and of mankind. For the
purity of their heart and life, for their stern integrity, which not
the clamors of party or the blandishments and temptations of

72 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

the world could mar or weaken, for their service of truth and jus-
tice and freedom, the cause of good government, of sound learn-
ing and morals, and Christian truth, and for all the blessed
results which they achieved we thank and bless Thee, O Thou
God of our life. For the memories of the precious dead we
thank and bless Thee. Not unmindful, not unobservant of this
scene and of these solemnities is the great cloud of witnesses by
which we are now and here surrounded. They are here with us
in thought and sympathy, in love, in spirit, and in fellowship.
Are they not ministering spirits unto us, and shall not we also
be the heirs of salvation ? Grant us more and more, we beseech
Thee, of their faith, their zeal, their consecration to Thy work.
Pour out Thy blessing, we pray, upon this church, upon both
pastor and people ; and as Thou hast been with it in time past,
so wilt Thou be with it in time to come, that Christian faith and
love may here abound, and go forth hence to disseminate far and
wide the influences that sliall be for the healing of souls and of
the nation. Bless, we pray Thee, our country ; and as Thou hast
been with her alway and hast guided her safely thus far, as by
a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and hast
made her prosperous among the states and empires of the earth,
so wilt Thou lead her still on to a more exalted destiny, whose
record shall tell of other triumphs of Thy strength, whose glad
day shall see other shackles broken and other slaves made free,
and more and more of faith and love and light. Bless the Presi-
dent of the United States and all who are in authority ; we pray
that they may rule in equity and righteousness, may fear God
and eschew iniquity, and cleave to Thy will, and serve in their
day and generation as those who shall give account. Be with
us, one and all, and help us that we may be good citizens,
kind and helpful neighbors and friends, and faitliful and true
disciples and followers of Thy dear Son. Give unto us the
clear vision without which Thy people perish. Give unto us
that purity which those have who see God, that truth which
maketh free indeed, that faith which overcometh the world, that

ADDRESS BY THE PASTOR. 73

love which is the fulfilling of the law, that love to God and
love to man which are so acceptable in Thy sight. And may
we have within us those sacred fires of truth and liberty that
shall quicken us to every good word and work ; and may we
so live that when at last we shall be called hence, and others
shall succeed to our places, it shall be given to us, as to those
who have gone before, to see the seed that has been sown in
faith, in patience and fidelity, springing up and bearing fruit
unto Thy glory. Hear us and answer us, and forgive us and
bless us. We ask it in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

ADDRESS BY THE PASTOR.

Dear Friends, — This service we are now celebrating is the
culmination of our commemorative services. Already we have
had delivered by the pastor of the church two discourses in full
Puritan measure, and only half that might be said has been
said. But what I said this morning and a week ago this morn-
ing was intended as preparation for these services, and also that
I myself might be effaced in order that persons who came from
abroad and others deeply interested in the church should have
an opportunity to speak.

The Rev. John Hancock says that it was on the 16th day
of September, 1639, that our church was embodied. Add ten
days to that for change of style, and it brings the date to
the 26th, which is really the anniversary of our birth as a
church. It seems to me, and I say it with all deference, that
Governor Winthrop was in error when he wrote that this
church was gathered the 17th of the month, and that Dr. Lunt
continued the error when he celebrated tlie two hundredth
anniversary on the 29th. To be sure we also are celebrating
on the 29th ; but we take the day set by Dr. Lunt in order to
avoid confusion, leaving it to those who come after us to select
the date more in accordance with such evidence as we possess.

74 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

The testimony of the Kcv. Mr. Hancock is of first importance.
He had the ancient records, now lost, in his possession ; ho was
a careful man ; and he is positive our church was embodied Sep-
tember 16, — that is, September 26, new style. It was a tempta-
tion also to celebrate on this present day, because being Sunday
so many of the laymen would find it more convenient to be here.
Of course for the same reason we are deprived of the presence
of many clergymen whom we should be delighted to have with
us ; but ministers are quite ready to be sacrificed at any time
in order that the laity may have a chance to go to church. 1
am put here to bid all who are present a hearty welcome, — to
you the friends of this church, to you once members of it and
now from a distance coming to join in this glad occasion, to all
who are interested in the historical associations of this church,
and to all who feel that by coming liere they celebrate the
memory of one of the most influential and honorable societies
in the Commonwealth.

It is customary at all celebrations such as we are now tak-
ing part in for the State of Massachusetts to be represented ;
and heretofore, at the celebrations of the First Churches that
have preceded ours in age, the State has been represented,
either by tlie governor or by the lieutenant-governor. Our Gov-
ernor writes me that he is not at all able to be present on
account of illness ; he has sent the following letter, which 1
shall read : —

Boston-, September 21, 1889.
Mr. Lfavis Bass and Rev. D. M. Wilson, Quincy, Mass.

Deak Siks, — I greatly regret that I shall not be able to attend
the exercises on Sunday the 29th instant, in commemoration of the
founding of the First Church in Quincy. In such an event I take
deep interest, as its occmTence indicates the vitality of those prin-
ciples which led to tlie settlement of, and which are influencing the
development of, this country.

Your church and society have fame throughout this broad land
and beyond its limits, in that two of those who have been num-

ADDKESS BY THE PASTOR. 75

bered among its members have been selected to fill the highest
office in the gift of our people. Both of them were giants among
the men of their days. They have gone, and your church edifice is
the shrine of their honored dust ; but the influence of their lives
remains for our instruction and benefit, and for that of coming gen-
erations of Americans.

We have with us their descendants whom we delight to honor,
not so much because of their ancestry as for their worth and ability.
The Adams family, the First Church in Quincy, the City of Quincy,
are so closely united that they are essentially parts of one whole,
centres of right influence, of energetic action, of prosperity, of so-
briety in all things, — in a word, examples of New England, its
civilization, its institiitions, and its growth.

I am yours very respectfully,

Oliver Ames.

Now, as the Governor could not be present, an invitation was
sent to John Quincy Adams Brackett, not only because he
would represent the State, but because of his name. Brackett,
Adams, Quincy, — when has this church been without these
names ? And in every generation those who bore them
honored this church and their country, were useful and ad-
mirable members of the community. Sorry I am that on ac-
count of illness, also, he is not here to represent not only the
State, but the names which he bears.

You all understand, because I presume you have all read
the history of the early days of the colony, that this church
reaches back in its existence to the year 1636. For two or
more years before First Church was organized, worshippers
met here, but they did not then form an independent congre-
gation. They went to their meeting-house in Boston, and
there received the sacrament. They went ten miles from
here to the city — then the town — of Boston, to attend this
occasional service. The pastor at that time was John Wilson,
and it is somewhat of a coincidence that Wilson is the name
of the present pastor of the church which originated in the
members of the Boston church who lived here. But we have

76 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

with us the pastor of Boston's First Church, and he will re-
member that when the people here wanted to withdraw from
his church and have a church of their own, his church felt
so poor it feared that the number of persons going from them
would weaken it, and they were loath to give their consent.
But they had the shrewdness to tax the people of this place
for the support of their church when they finally gave permis-
sion, and as they " grew up with the country " they eventually
prospered, and, I am pleased to say, can now get on without
any support from us.

I have the pleasure of introducing to you the Rev. Stopford
Wentworth Brooke, pastor of the First Church in Boston.

ADDRESS BY THE REV. S. W. BROOKE.

Ladies and Gentlemen, — I must confess that when I received
the kind invitation of your minister and committee, I experi-
enced some feelings of awkwardness and incongruity at hav-
ing to speak to you on such an essentially American occasion
as the present. But with that hospitality, which is so delight-
ful a characteristic of this country and for which I have had
so often to be grateful, you have been good enough to forget
that I am not an American citizen. You have remembered
only that I am the minister of the First Church in Boston. It
is as sucli that I bring you the warm greetings of the ancient
mother church out of which you sprang, on having completed
two hundred and fifty years of your corporate life. 1 had
hoped indeed that another representative of that Church, one
whose name is associated in your minds with occasions such as
this, one whose extraordinarily intimate and varied acquain-
tance witli the facts of New England history we all recognize
and admire, — Dr. George Ellis, — would have been here to speak
to you about the early relations of the two churches. It would
not be wise however for me, even if I had the requisite knowl-

ADDRESS BY THE EEY. S. W. BROOKE. Y7

edge, to trespass on his ground; and you — you who know the
general outline of those facts so well yourselves — would scarcely
thank me for what you might well call such English audacity.
I shall say nothing, therefore, about the mutual history of the
two churches ; but I will rather, as a Unitarian clergyman
speaking to Unitarian laymen, confine myself to two thoughts
applicable to our present Unitarian position, which have been
suggested by this happy occasion. They are common thoughts ;
but I need not therefore ask your indulgence for them, for it is
common thoughts after all that most rule our lives.

The first is that the men who founded these churches were
men possessing — nay, rather possessed by — a great idea. They
left England, its comforts, and all the dear associations that
brooded for them in those meadows and quiet villages of the
eastern countries, they endured this inhospitable climate, they
faced ferocious enemies, the terrors of the wilderness, and the
doom of death for many of their number, because they desired
to worship and serve their God according to the inmost convic-
tions of their souls. They would not compromise with what
they considered the truth, they would not conceal it out of in-
difference or fear or self-interest; but holding it dearer than
all outward happiness, they sought a place where they might
live by their truth in freedom. That is a memory which most
have been in the minds of many of us to-day ; it is a thought
which we shall do well to cherish. We live in an age which
congratulates itself on the growth of tolerance between the dif-
ferent sects of religion. But is there not real danger lest in
this spread of the tolerant spirit we should forget, as these
men never did, that there is a virtue in thinking out our own
opinions, in making them part of our very life, and in stand-
ing by them in the face of the world ? I meet Unitarians and
liberal Christians sometimes — I do not allude to professed
non-churchgoers — who seem to have no religious convictions
whatever ; they consider one intellectual form of faith as good
as another, although they are very certain in their intellectual

78 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

doctrines about business or politics ; they frequent the church
where their friends go or fashion and wealth lead, although
views are held and ceremonies performed there with which they
do not and cannot sympathize. That was not the spirit which
drove these men whose memory we celebrate to-day into the
primeval forest across a terrible ocean ; that was not the spirit
which has made these churches so strong and enduring. They
were in earnest about their religious thoughts ; they meant them
to rule their lives ; they believed they were the very truth itself ;
they were prepared to suffer and die for them. Better I say
their earnestness with all its fearful intolerance — and it was
fearful — than our sentimental tolerance without their earnest-
ness of conviction.

There is another thought suggested by this occasion, which
you will permit me to put before you. It is that the men who
founded these churches intended they should be centres whence
other centres of intellectual and spiritual influence should radi-
ate through the land. In Virginia, as Mr. Lodge has recently
told us, " the mass of the clergy were men who sold tobacco, were
the boon companions of the planters, hunted, shot, and drank
hard." With some of these occupations I have no quarrel ; but
the gist of his condemnation comes when he adds that they per-
formed " their sacred duties in a perfunctory and not always
decent manner." But in New England the clergy were some of
the most cultivated and serious men of their time. With all their
faults, — faults which belonged to their age as much as to them-
selves, and few of us who realize how difficult it is to be above
one's age will condemn them harshly for these, — they yet rep-
resented and kept vigorous and intelligent that stern doctrine
and that rigid moral tone of their society, without which it could
never have conquered its extraordinary difficulties and dangers ;
and so higl)ly did they prize this doctrine and this tone that in
every new settlement they established a church of their faith,
and secured tlnis tlie spread of their views and their s])irit. Is
not that too an ideal which our churches — the lineal descend-

ADDEESS BY THE REV. S. W. BROOKE. 79

ants of those stern and fiery men — would do well to remember ?
I am well aware, when I say this, that the Unitarian churches
of New England have always represented a powerful intellec-
tual and moral influence in the community. It would not be
becoming for me to remind you of that new spiritual awaken-
ing to which in their early days they gave birth here, to speak
of their part in the Antislavery agitation or in the great war,
or in the saving of California to the Union. You know too,
better than I do, how many are the benevolent institutions they
founded in Boston and other cities. But still, with the excep-
tion of Mr. Starr King's lonely venture by the waters of the
Pacific, — and it was as a patriot rather than a Unitarian that he
worked there, — they have confined their range as churches too
much to New England. As individuals indeed they have accom-
plished much elsewhere. It is a well-known fact that to-day some
of the most intrepid commercial enterprises, much of the best lit-
erature and of the more progressive politics of the country, owe
part of their vitality and success to members of our churches.
As individuals they have indeed fulfilled the ideal of those from
whom they have sprung. But where in the new settlements are
the churches those ancestors in their zeal would have established
there ? Where are the centres in the States toward the sunset
whence our intellectual and spiritual influence is to radiate
through the land ? Where is the corporate body more powerful
than one or two isolated individuals can ever be, which is to
cherish and spread our doctrine and spirit as those early set-
tlers did theirs ? Those centres are unfortunately few and far
from one another. We need therefore mucli more of their tem-
per of zeal. There is a great deal no doubt in the methods
they employed from which we must keep ourselves free. They
were far too fond of monopoly in religion ; they applied the
trust-system ruthlessly to Christianity ; they considered them-
selves, those old English squires and yeomen, " the lords of
human kind ; " " pride in their port, defiance in their eye," they
brooked no opinion, endured no morality, which was not their

80 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

own. They would have made the whole world Puritan if they
could, and if God had not been different to their idea of Him. It
is a fault, however, that an Englishman can scarcely condemn se-
verely in them without condemning severely his whole nation ; it
is a quality too, of which I am bound to say — if you will permit me
to say it — that I have found no deficiency whatever in Americans.
Their bitter intolerance indeed we shall in these days of religious
liberty probably avoid ; it smacks too much of High Church Epis-
copalianism or narrow Orthodoxy to suit a Unitarian. But
their aggressive zeal ; their resolve to plant their doctrines and
morality and spirit wherever they could find a foothold in
men's minds and hearts ; their surprise, not to use a stronger
word, if a new settlement refused one of their churches, — of that
temper we Unitarians can, for some time to come, have a great
deal more without running much risk of falling like Saint Peter,
or becoming like the Sons of Thunder. Like the founders of these
churches, let us assume then actively that we are born to rule the
earth, and do our best to establish that rule wherever we can.

Ladies and gentlemen, these are the two thoughts which this
happy occasion has suggested to me. Whether the First Church
would altogether approve of them I cannot say. They have
given me, however, the privilege of bringing to you — it is pleas-
ant to repeat pleasant messages — their heartiest congratulations
on having attained — how shall I express it? — nearly the age
of the first great Pilgrim of the Invisible, our father Abraham.
And in conclusion I can only ask you, if you have found any
thing to disapprove of in what I have said, to remember that
I am not yet New Englandizcd, — or, shall I say rather, not yet
Americanized.

Mr. L. H. H. Johnson then made a statement regard-
ing distinguished persons who had been unable to attend
the services. He said : —

It was a disappointment to those who had charge of the invi-
tations, it will be a matter of deep regret to those of you who

Rev WiHiain Smith.
Wilham P, Luiit, D, D.

Rev. Peter Wh tney.
Rev, D M. Wilson

Hon. Richard Cranch.
Rev. J. D, Wells-

ADDRESS BY MR. L. H. H. JOHNSON. 81

were privileged to worship here during his pastorate, that the
Rev. John D. Wells could not be with us to-day. He is the only
one living of the former pastors of this church, and it would have
been peculiarly fitting and appropriate, could his voice have been
heard on this occasion of her rejoicing, this anniversary of her
birth. In his absence, let me read you his letter.

Boston, Sept. 19, 1889.

My dear Mr. Wilson, — Were it not that I have for some time
felt myself unequal to the demands of public occasions, I should
be glad to accept your kind invitation to take part in the cele-
bration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First
Church of Quincy. The occasion is one of deep interest to all
concerned in the history and the welfare of the ancient parish, and
of no little moment — permit me to say — to me, whose privilege
it was so recently, and for so long a season, to occupy the place
which you now fill.

To all my former parishioners, and to your whole people, let me
extend my hearty greeting and my congratulations that they have
lived to see this day, on which I trust they will not only renew
their fealty to the faith and freedom of the fathers by whom the
church was founded, but will dedicate themselves afresh to the ser-
vice of a far higher faith and wider freedom than the fathers ever
dreamed of, — looking forward with confidence to the dawn of that
distant but surely coming day, when the clouds of ignorance and
superstition that still obscure the heavens shall have utterly dis-
solved and vanished, and the very truth of God shall shine every-
where, undimmed and unobstructed.

I am sincerely yours, John D. W^ells.

Many other letters have been received by the committee,

among them one from Mr. Breck, of Milton, an old gentleman

of nearly ninety-two. I am going to read a short extract from

his letter, because it gives an interesting picture of the church

as it appeared during service about 1811. ^ I have here, also,

letters from the pastor of the First Church of Exeter, N. H., the

^ For this and other letters see later pages.
6

82 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

church which Rev. John Wheelwright founded when driven out of
this neighborhood ; from President Eliot ; from Rev. Dr. Stores,
of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; from Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, whose
Dorothy Q., not John Hancock's, as he is careful to say, was born
just a century before him, and from many others. All the letters
are most interesting, and only the fear of taking too much time
from those who are to follow prevents me from reading them.

The Rev. Mr. Wilson : The next speaker I shall in-
troduce to you is one who by his knowledge of the facts
of our church and town history, by his deep interest in all
that has happened in New England's past, and by his
appreciation of the spirit which led to the planting of our
institutions, is highly qualified to speak to you on this
occasion. Indeed, it would have been entirely acceptable
to the committee having charge of these exercises if he
had consented to consume the larger portion of the time
devoted to this celebration. I am sure you will welcome
in this hour Mr. Charles Francis Adams.

ADDRESS BY CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

In one of the best known and most deservedly popular of his
poems, Oliver Wendell Holmes has said : —

" Little of all wc value here
"Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year,
"Without both feeling and looking queer.
In fact, there 's nothing that keeps its youth.
So far as I know, but a tree and truth."

What is true of a century is, it goes without saying, much
more true of that period of time the close of which wo to-day
are here to commemorate. But after all, like most other true
things, it is true only comparatively speaking and in part. It is
true of tilings human ; it is in nowise true of tilings truly divine.

ADDRESS BY CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 83

or of natural processes which work out results regardless of time,
as mortals reckon it. We and our fathers before us have lived
here in Quincy two centuries and a half, through all those years
worshipping within these walls, or within the other and humbler
walls which preceded these. Two centuries and a half seem to
us, and measured by the record of human events they indeed
are, an epoch ; yet not long since, as I was one day walking
here in Quincy with an eminent man of science, we stopped on
the brink of a tarn in one of our abandoned quarries. The ledge
chanced to be of slate, the thin strata of which stood perpendic-
ularly to the water, which lay at their base. Pointing up, my
companion called my attention to a line of fracture near the top
of the wall of stone, and perhaps a foot below the thin herbage
which grew from the layer of soil which overspread it. The
fracture was distinct and uniform, — just such a regular even
break as you might see if some great weight were to pass over
the narrow end of a bundle of shingles resting upright, and
crush them all at a single point in one direction. As I looked
wonderingly at this break in the solid rock, — tlie fractured tops
of the slate all inclining to the southwest, — my companion told
me that it was caused by the movement of the glacier during the
ice age of America. The ice age of America ! He spoke of a
period so remote that the mention of it reduces all records made
by man to mere memoranda of things of yesterday. Yet there
before me was that line of surface fracture in the rock, — clean,
uniform, distinct, — just as the towering, grinding wall of ice
had left it, when, its steady march to the southward coming to
a close, it had, thousands of years ago, slowly and sullenly re-
ceded in the direction of those remote regions of the frozen
north where it still reigns supreme. The break in the wall of
slate had been there where I looked then upon it, the same in
every minute particular, from that time to this ; it was there
when the Scripture records say that Adam and Eve dwelt in
Eden ; it was there when Moses led the children of Israel up
out of Egypt ; it was there when Greek and Persian were con-

84 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

tending at Marathon and Thermopylas ; it was there during the
twenty centuries of Roman empire ; it was there when Columbus
first set foot on American soil ; it was there — it had been there
ten thousand years — when yesterday, as it were, our fathers, a
mere handful, gathered here together on that September day
and founded this church.

Viewed in this light, in the light of Nature and of God, the
event we commemorate seems, and is, dwarfed of its age and
brought very near to us. A thousand years measured in this
scale become but as yesterday, or a watch in the night ; and the
signing of the Braintree Church compact was something which
occurred in the morning, while we here have now come to high
noon. We are here but to celebrate the event of to-day's earlier
hours ; yet few of the human institutions which existed in those
earlier hours of Nature's single day exist now. The record is
almost appalling when we recall the number of the creations
of man this church of Braintree, in its quiet, steady, unbroken
span of life, has survived. On that 26th of September, 1639,
when Governor Winthrop sailed from the town of Boston across
the bay to Braintree to meet those reverend pastors, Hobart and
Wilson and Mather and Allen, who had found their way hither
through the forest paths to extend the right hand of fellowship
to William Tompson and Henry Flynt, history, as we know it,
had scarcely yet begun. Galileo, the father of modern astro-
nomy, was still living and learning ; and John Milton, a man in
the flower of his youth, had just returned to London from his
memorable sojourn in Italy. Scarcely a dynasty in Europe
which now exists existed then. Russia was an unknown and
barbarous region, not yet admitted into the number of civilized
States, for a whole generation of men was to pass away before
Peter the Great rocked in his cradle. Prussia was to be created ;
Gustavus Adolphus had died at Lutzcn only seven years before ;
the Thirty Years' War was still raging, and Sweden was the
first military power in Europe. Poland has since been obliter-
ated from the list of nations ; but Poland then was the bulwark

ADDRESS BY CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 85

of civilization, for it was more than forty years later that John
Sobieski smote the Turk before the walls of Vienna, and re-
leased Christendom forever from fear of the Islamite. Further
west Richelieu, the great cardinal-duke, was organizing modern
France and planting those seeds of wind which ripened in the ful-
ness of time into the whirlwind of just a century ago. Finally,
in England the second Stuart still sat upon the throne, for the
famous Long Parliament had not yet been convened ; John
Hampden was a country gentleman, and men had yet to hear
of Oliver Cromwell.

Thus, Sunday by Sunday, as our fathers through eight gener-
ations have gathered within these walls and followed through
the centuries the same forms of worship, — the church steadily
and unceasingly pursuing its work of modest, quiet usefulness,
— in the outer world empires and dynasties have risen, culmi-
nated, and declined ; the names of men marking epochs in hu-
man progress have been heard for the first time, become familiar
as household words, and then been embalmed in history. In the
intervals of divine service, men and women have listened on the
porch of this church to rumors of the victories of Lutheran and
Catholic in the time of Wallenstein and the Swede ; they there
discussed the issue of King and Commons in the days of the
Long Parliament ; they heard of the death of King Charles on
the scaffold before Whitehall, and sent up prayers for the soul
of the Protector when he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Marston Moor and Naseby were names as familiar and thrilling
to them as Gettysburg and Appomattox are to us. King
Philip's war hung a terror over them ; and the story of the
death of Wolfe on the heights of Abraham was no less a cause
of thankfulness, here expressed in earnest prayer, than were
the tidings that Washington stood within Yorktown, or that
Grant was in possession of Vicksburg. This church had passed
through nearly half of its existence when its doors were closed
by the first tempests of the Revolution, and its pastor read from
the pulpit the freshly promulgated Declaration of Independence.

86 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

All these human events have taken place in the two centuries
and a half since this church — so old and yet so young — was
gathered, and it has borne witness to them ; yet in the sight of
Him here worshipped, and in the scale in which His events are
ordered, it is a new-comer, and but of yesterday. One hundred
centuries have gone since the last great process of Nature left
Quincy Bay, and the hills sloping to it upon which we dwell,
and the granite which here breaks througli the eartli's crust, as
we see them now. Thus this, the first church of Braintree, is
old only as things human are old ; but so far as America at
least is concerned, who shall deny the age of an institution, or
refuse honor to it, when its life of unbroken usefulness covers
more than half the years which have elapsed since the voyage of
Columbus ? For it and for us " the past at least is secure,"

The Rev. Mr. Wilsox: When the old town of Brain-
tree grew so large and its settlers pushed so far south
that it was a hardship for some of them to come of a
Sunday to the old meeting-house, they began to agitate
the project of building a new house in a more central lo-
cation. The people in this part of the town were not
in sympathy with the movement, and opposed it. But
finally the people at the south, quite out of patience,
built a house for themselves. Even then our ancestors
here treated them as Pharaoh treated the Israelites, —
they would not let them go. Much ill feeling was be-
tween the two parts of the town, and it was continued
for years. I am happy to state that it is now all ended,
and that I have the pleasure of introducing to you to-day
the minister of that congregation which earliest swarmed
from us ; and I can assure him that all animosity on our
part has entirely ceased. The Rev. Mr. Ellsworth of
the old church in Braintree.

ADDRESS BY THE EEV. A. A. ELLSWORTH. 87

ADDKESS BY THE REV. A. A. ELLSWORTH.

As a representative of the First Church of Braintree I can
assure the pastor of this ancient First Church, speaking for
her eldest daughter, that nothing but the kindest feelings are
indulged by the child for the parent. And in behalf of my
people, many of whom are here, I earnestly thank the com-
mittee in charge of these exercises for including us among
their guests.

The extension of fellowship toward us could not be unac-
knowledged, although it involved the duty of speaking, amidst
so rich a repast of thought and expression appropriate to the
occasion, where if ever for me silence would be golden. I am
glad to know that our church colonized from this in the sixty-
eighth year of your age, — a period when children are very apt
to leave home for local convenience and for personal happiness,
and still cherish the associations of their birthplace.

During the past few days I have been reviewing in the excel-
lent sermon of your pastor, and in many an old volume, the
record of the two hundred and fifty years which are included be-
tween the dates on the programme. It is a history full of inter-
est at every step, and becomes dramatic to one realizing that he
is following back the streams of his own existence, who dis-
covers here and there the trace of an ancestor, and thus feels
the rythm of pulsations which chord with the beatings of his
own heart. It is a long, full story, and were a day given each
one here to speak, it could not half be told. We may, however,
by the associations of this hour revive many fading memories,
kindle a flame of gratitude toward those who lived in the past,
become invigorated for present duties, and thus be the media-
tors of all the good Puritan forces which may still go march-
ing on.

Happy the orator or historian who at some " protracted meet-
ing " might present to his audience the many gems of character,

88 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

act, or incident easily gathered out of the details of this history.
The specific is always so much more interesting than the ge-
neric. But to do it justice requires talents and time not at my
command.

The last speaker, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, is one who
above others has both the talents and the time. The gems are
not always sought for in the exhumations of the early archives,
for it is frequently a diversion, requiring not talents but only
time to entertain an audience with the errors and foibles of the
Puritan age. Many reviewers seem to be like house-servants,
sent to the attics to bring down ancient and faded wardrobes,
and to excite amusement, forgetting that ancient errors largely
were like clothing, — a fashion, to change and pass away.

The history of the Puritans is most important to us, not
from their accidental peculiarities, but for the great eternal
principles upon wliicli rested their religion and their liberty.
The rest is mere bric-a-brac, which pleases a senseless and tri-
fling generation.

Our fathers were men of stalwart mould. Baptized in the
spirit of the Reformation, they believed in the freedom and lib-
erty of the individual soul, and out of this came a liberality that
had never been seen before, say what we may of their narrow-
ness. Much of that which we talk of as a sentiment, they lived
as a principle, and made sacrifices for, that it might exist.
They collected the seeds for the tree of liberty at Worms and
Geneva; fostered its growth at Scrooby, Braintrec, Essex, and
Amsterdam; took it up rooted, with the names attached, trans-
ported it and set it out in these very fields, that they might live
piously under its shade and worship God beneath its branches,
and not that it might grow May-poles to ho danced around.

Our fathers were reformatory, revolutionary, scliismatic ; and
in these qualities they displayed courage and mental force, but
these liad not made tliem historic characters worthy to be so
remembered. Their virtue consisted not in destruction, not in
mere negation, not in breaking up old temples and housing

ADDRESS BY THE EEV. A. A. ELLSWORTH. 89

themselves in the fragments, building nothing better for them-
selves, not in eliminating superstition and tyranny, — but in a
vigorous grasp and hold of fundamental truth, believed in with
all their heart, and for which they would contend with all their
powers. Because they were Protestants they believed not less in
God, but more in God. They broke with many of the symbols of
the English Church only because they believed more positively in
the Divine Spirit. They gave up Christmas and Easter because
their firmer faith saw Christ walking every day among the
churches and standing by their side amidst wolves and Indians.
They held strongly to man's depravity, but they held just as
strongly to his responsibility under a moral law, and thus kept
the balance of his real dignity. It is shocking to some sensibili-
ties to know that they believed the heathen a lost man, but they
were not hardened fatalists to leave him untaught without the
offers of salvation. Mayhew and Eliot would blaze the forest
path with their bleeding feet, if only a savage might learn of
" justification by faith." They developed into republicans and
threw off the yoke of British rule, but they believed in law and
order, and voted themselves poor that they might have schools
and churches, colleges and an intelligent and righteous legisla-
ture. Shall we merely build the tombs of the prophets and
garnish the sepulchre of the righteous ? Do we imagine that
the spiritual inertia of their positive faith is to carry us forward
through all time without any added impulse ? Or will the res-
toration of what they threw away make up for the throwing
away of what they held as all important ? Will our modern
agnosticism, deification of science, irresponsible fatalism, and
secularism secure the Church and State against man's passions,
unchecked by anything that may be called a positive religion ?
Is it not still and always true that man's responsibility to God is
the greatest truth, and that after all our good works, conscience
always recognizes the fact that there is a margin of demerit
only to be balanced by some method of forgiving love, and that
without a distinct faith in a peopled heaven where souls are

90 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

blessed, there will be little hope of blessedness among a peopled
earth ? I would not that you should read life backward.

" Alas ! what once hath been shall be no more ;

The groaning earth in travail and in pain
Brings forth its races, but does not restore ;

And the dead nations never live again."

But I would make of this past history a concave mirror,
catching the rays of the present day and the concentrated good
principles of the past, all to be focussed into a beacon for the
future, shining into years far beyond, that liberty, intelligence,
and religion may never be wanting among men.

The Rev. Mr. Wilson : This church has never been
without the name of Quincy. It is the only name, so
far as we know, which has come down to us without a
break from Wheelwright's church. Nine generations of
that family have worshipped in the meeting-houses of this
society. They have guided the councils of it, honored it
by their fame, supported it by their liberality.^ Vessels of
our communion service bear their name, and this ancient
Bible was presented by one, and at a later time rebound by
another among the most honorable of the family. Very
interesting and instructive are the lives of the Quincys,
in spite of the difficulty of distinguishing the numerous
Josiahs and Edmunds from one another. I now have the
pleasure of introducing to you JosiAn Quincy, the sixth
of that name.

^ The Rev. Mr. Hancock in his sermon preached the 23d of April, 1 738,
on the "death of the Hon. Edmund Quincy, Esq., one of his Majesty's Council,
and of the Judtres of the Circuit, and agent for the Province of ^lassachusetts
15ay at the Court of dreat Britain," has the following : " And in token of his
peculiar affection to this church, whereof he was a leading member for many
years, he has left us an acceptable legacy in his last will and testament. lie
loved us, and how was his heart engaged in building us a synagogue ? "

ADDRESS BY JOSIAH QUINCY. 91

ADDKESS BY JOSIAH QUINCY,

The anniversary that we celebrate to-day reminds us no less
of change than of continuity. It is as significant in suggesting
the reflection that ecclesiastical organizations and theological
dogmas are not exempt from mutability and decay, as it is in
recalling the fact that our church of to-day is the lineal descend-
ant of that which our fathers planted at Mount Wollaston a
quarter of a millennium ago, — the same church, yet so changed
in its forms of worship, in its articles of faith, that its founders
would scarcely be able to recognize it ; the same, yet different,
even as we, who have long since separated Church and State and
established religious liberty, are different from our ancestors,
who charged with sedition the first minister who preached here,
and banished him from their Commonwealth for theological
opinions maintained in a sermon.

Yet under changing form is generally to be found, if rightly
sought for, unchanging substance ; out of the past speaks often
a living voice for the present. The Christian Church changes ;
Christianity remains the same. The kernel that lies concealed
within the outer envelope is the same to-day as when our
fathers drew from it the spirit that supported them through the
trials and hardships of their young settlement ; and it was the
same then as when it effected that marvellous conversion of
the ancient world. The famous sermon — probably delivered
here at the Mount as well as before the Church at Boston — for
which John Wheelwright was sent forth into the wilderness
through the deep snows of winter, seems as strangely quaint to
us in its theology as in its structure and spelling ; yet trans-
lated into our modern forms of thought and expression, the doc-
trine of this discourse, which has been well described as a bold
one for any age, is still glowing with the fire which blazed
through it two centuries and a half ago, and may well detain us
for a few moments to-day.

92 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

To support justification by faith or grace, and to deny the
sufficiency of justification by works, — to use the old theological
terms, — was Wheelwright's thesis; or to state generally the real
essence of his side of the Antinomian controversy, of which this
sermon formed a part, he maintained that a living knowledge of
spiritual truth was necessary, and that right conduct alone could
not take its place. The present tendency of liberal religious
thought is indeed away from this opinion, while it is even more
at variance with the scientific spirit of our age. But in memory
of the fearless and able minister, let us briefly look at what is
essential in the doctrine he upheld.

The question is really a very simple one. Does the purpose
and object of our existence lie inside the world as it appears to
us, or outside of it? If the former, right conduct here is all suf-
ficient, and Christianity has its chief value as a code of ethics ;
if the latter, conduct cannot be the final end, but only a means
to a transcendental end. Is this temporal existence of man a
real and true life, of which the life eternal is only the sequence
or resultant ; or is the life eternal the only true life, from which
man is separated by the passing illusion of existence in the
material world ? If we answer the first question in the affirma-
tive, we are substantially under the covenant of works ; if the
second, we are under the covenant of faith or grace preached by
Wheelwright.

Neither from the point of view of the individual man nor from
that of the human race as a whole can outward works be regarded
as a final end. The individual enters the form of perception which
we call the world through the door of birth, leads a brief existence
of unsatisfied striving, and passes out again through tlie door of
death. In no true sense can it be said that our works follow us ;
they remain behind as part of the common inheritance of human-
ity, to share the fate of humanity. Some few exceptional persons,
fortunate — or perhaps rather, in a deeper view, unfortunate —
in the possession of peculiar temperaments or in their si)ecial
circumstances, arc indeed able to regard their lives in the

ADDRESS BY JOSIAH QUINCY. 93

world of sense as satisfactory and complete, needing only to
be crowned with eternity, and to see in their external works
the purpose of life accomplished and existence justified. But
for the great mass of mankind life needs, and has everywhere
and always been given, a transcendental end. In this the great-
est men of action and the deepest thinkers have agreed with
unlettered peasants ; thus only has the human mind been able to
" justify the ways of God to man." Through this church men
have for two hundred and fifty years sought diligently to find
that end ; here two Presidents of tlie United States have joined
with the humblest citizens of their town in seeking for light to
understand it.

Nor do we reach a different conclusion as to the sufficiency of
works if we merge the individual life in that of the race. If we
view the human race as one continuous organism, and if we are
sanguine enough to believe in the ultimate perfectibility of a
society governed by worldly motives, we cannot avoid the same
difficulty which meets the individual. For the words of Carlyle
are true no less of the human race taken as a whole than of its
separate members: "We emerge from the Inane ; haste storm-
fully across the astonished earth ; then plunge again into the
Inane." Science, which sometimes seems so hostile to the
claims of religion, has established some facts of the greatest
value in forcing us to the conclusion that no purpose of exist-
ence can be found inside the limits of the world. One of these
facts is that the human race has had a beginning and must come
to an end ; that the globe which we inhabit was evolved out of
chaos, and only acquired after the lapse of ages those conditions
which make human life possible ; that in the course of other
ages those conditions will again change, and human life on earth
can no longer exist ; and that finally what came out of chaos

will return into chaos, and

" the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like an insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a wrack behind."

94 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

The inexorable hand of time will in the end blot out all lui-
man civilization, and of man and his works there will be left
no trace. When the last page of history has been written it will
be, if it have no significance outside the world, " a tale told by an
idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

These considerations, which lead some minds indeed to a
shallow and unphilosophical materialism which explains noth-
ing, properly lead the way to transcendentalism. From the irre-
sistible logic of pessimism religion offers the only escape ; but
it must be a religion not of works alone, not of forms or dog-
mas or ethics, but a religion such as Wheelwright preached, — a
religion of grace, of spiritual truth. The life of sense is illu-
sion,— its final object, to overcome itself and pass into the life
eternal. Works, which are part of the illusion, are of value to
him who performs them only as they bring his immortal spir-
itual individuality nearer to the final point of disillusion ; and he
who is under the covenant of grace has already attained nearer
to this point than works alone can carry him. And from that
grace and spiritual insight will flow, as the whole history of
mankind shows, more works and better works for the benefit of
others than can come from the motives supplied by any code of
ethics.

In memory of another great preacher of this church let us
recall the pregnant words upon this subject which he uttered at
the celebration of a half century ago. " The vital principle of
Cliristianity consists of the vindication it so triumphantly makes
of the spiritual principle in man. It is a soul-religion, not only
as distinguished from forms and rites, but also and still more as
distinguished from a decent exterior, from a mere prudential
conformity of the life to traditions and usages. It seeks to re-
generate man ; and this regeneration can only be effected by
penetrating as it does with its liglit into the mind, and with its
purity into the heart, and by setting up its kingdom within. . . .
The struggle always has been between faith and works ; be-
tween the principle of religion in the soul, and the manifestation

ADDRESS BY JOSIAH QUINCY. 95

of it in conduct ; between the living spirit of piety, and dead
mechanical conformity to fixed usages and forms."

The hymn which we are about to sing to-day, as it was sung
at the celebration of fifty years ago, seems to me in harmony
with that conception of religion which was common alike to
Wheelwright, the first preacher of our earliest settlement, and
to Lunt, the gifted minister who stood in his place two hundred
years later. After enjoying all of earthly greatness which his
country could bestow, John Quincy Adams still placed the true
end and purpose of life beyond the material world, and held
himself justified rather by faith than by works. Time is in-
deed, in his words, " the measure but of change." Eternity is
the reality, time the delusion. Time and change alike are
but the forms of our human consciousness. Eternity is now,
and time is merely the veil which hides it from us. Religion
lifts a corner of the veil and gives us a point of view, if we
will but take it, outside of time, outside of the world, outside of
ourselves as human beings, — the only point of view from which
the universe, otherwise so incomprehensible, can be in part at
least understood. Not through time to eternity, but out of time
to eternity, is the true thought. And to that now which is " in
realms above " we can attain in this present life, as did some
of our fathers who " worshipped in this mountain " of old, if we
will seek out the true essence of that religion which has come
down to us from them. Only as man conceives of himself not
as an organism of matter, endowed for a time with a mysterious
quality called life, but as an immortal spirit, passing through
that form of consciousness which we call the world, but neither
limited to it nor having his real home in it, does life acquire its
true significance. To borrow again the words of Carlyle :
" Sweep-away the illusion of time ! Are we not spirits, that are
shaped into a body, into an appearance, and that fade away into
air and invisibility ? This is no metaphor ; it is a simple scientific
fact. We start out of nothingness, take figure and are appari-
tions ; round us, as round the veriest spectre, is eternity."

96 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

The religion of those who come after us may change as much
in form as our religion of to-day has changed from that of our
ancestors ; but that our descendants will continue to have a
religion, and that its essence will be the same two hundred and
fifty years hence that it is to-day, and was two hundred and fifty
years ago, we may rest well assured. I can close with no better
wish for the future of this church of our fathers than that it
may again number among its ministers some Wheelwright, with
both the power and the courage to preach the spiritual truth
and spare not, though his condemnation fall upon his fellow
ministers and cause " combustion in church and commonwealth ; "
among its laymen, some Coddington, ready to abandon home
and worldly possessions rather than give up his convictions ;
and among those from other places who here listen to the Word,
some Henry Vane, ready to vindicate the great principles of
civil and religious liberty even by laying down his life upon
the scaffold, with the calm fortitude taught by the gospel of
Christ.

The congregation was invited to rise and join in sing-
ing the hymn written for the two hundredth anniversary
by John Quincy Adams. The great company present
stood up and sang two verses with fervor. Then the
Rev. Mr. Wilson spoke as follows : —

About fifty years ago when tlie town of Quincy and all the
towns of old Braintrec celebrated their two hundredth anniver-
sary, the citizens were disappointed in not securing President
John Quincy Adams to deliver tlie oration. The affair was
likely to go hy default, when the young men of the town came
to the rescue, and without much regard to the older citizens
went ahead and an-anged tlie programme. One of the orators
selected was the Rev. George Whitney, son of the venerated
Parson Whitney ; the young men's choice for jioet was another
young man, Chi-istopher Pearse Cranch. He is our poet to-day,

POEM BY CHRISTOPHEE PEARSE CRANCH. 97

his youthful spirit in no degree abated, his love for this church
and town as great as ever. By name and descent he is our
own, he is one of us ; and it is with much satisfaction I ex-
tend your welcome to him on our two hundredth and fiftieth
anniversary.

POEM BY CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH.

The mild autumnal day
Is filled with visionary forms that pass
Before our sight as in some magic glass.

Along the horizon gray
The dim procession of ancestral shades

Appears, dissolves, and fades.
Grave, sad-robed fathers of the Church and State,
Matrons and mothers, mild-eyed and sedate,
And sober-suited youths and home-bred maids,

Pledged to maintain inviolate
New England's earliest, dearest heritage, —
The faith and conduct of that sterner age.

Westward across the rough and unknown seas
We see them, an advancing, spreading host, —

Along the rocky coast
And 'neath the forests of primeval trees
Building their simple states and villages ;
And in their midst, like castles of defence
In medioBval days, to guard the tents
And cottages of those who clustered round.

Choosing a plot of ground
Whereon they found a church, though called by a name

Of more prosaic sound
Than in the stately cities whence they came.
Where proud cathedrals with their chanting choirs

7

98 COMMEMOKATIVE SERVICES.

Stretch their long aisles and lift their solemn spires.

Here first of all they rear
With pious hands and reverence austere
Their house of worship and of brotherhood,
Of prayer and praise and spiritual food,
Symbol supreme of trust and faith sincere.

Far back in shadowy lines the lives, the plans

Of those old Puritans
Lie sketched ; and though to us their acrid creeds
Seem like the harsh and unripe fruits of spring,
Fitter for ancient Hebrews than for needs
Of Saxon men who fled from priest and king
And rituals outworn, to seek across the sea
A home for conscience and for liberty.
Let us believe their virtues far outweighed
Their faults, and note their sunshine, not their shade.
True to the essence of the doctrines taught
And to the lights they saw, they lived and wrought.
Earnest and brave, in this their new abode
They found amid the wilds a surer road
Toward freedom, union, purer Church and State.

Nothing effeminate
Or base was here. No rank malarial dews
Of courts corrupt unnerved their sturdy thews ;
But like the keen salt breeze that swept along

Their shores o'er rocks and sands.
From unknown springs a spirit hale and strong

Inspired their hearts and hands.

Let not our wise noon-lighted century scorn
The narrow opening of their clouded morn.
The intolerance that allowed no light to shine
Beside their own in tbeir crypt-guarded shrine.
Shut in and kept for future times a law

POEM BY CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH. 99

Of life and duty grander than they saw.

Our fathers sowed with stern humility,

But knew not what the harvest was to be.

More light, they said, would issue from God's book,

Not knowing 't was the deeper, wiser look

The soul took of itself that gave them eyes to see.

From the rough gnarled root they planted here,

Through storm and sun, through patient hope and fear.

There grew a fair and ever-spreading tree,

With roots fast grappling in the granite rocks,

Unharmed by cold or drought or tempest shocks ;

Fed by the sun and winds and seasons' change.

It reared its trunk serenely tall and fair,

Its boughs diverging in the upper air

Of thought and liberty.
Loaded with leaves and blossoms rich and strange,
And promise of a fruitage yet to be

In the long centuries of futurity.

The slow-paced years and ages have moved on,

Through life and death and change, through peace and war

The vast historic eras come and gone ;

And from the climes afar
Primeval woods and savage-haunted coasts

Filled with the gathering hosts,
Till strengthening, widening, great, united, free.
Stretches the mighty continent from sea to sea.

And with increase and change what marvels rise

Before our wondering eyes !
What new-found powers, what labyrinthine clews.
What heights, what depths, what vast encircling views ! —
Religion, science, art, mechanic skill.
The enterprise of trade by seas and lands,
The teeming farm, the factory's whirling mill ;
Steam like a giant with a hundred hands ;

100 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

The all-recording press
Brightening the dumb world's dreary loneliness.
The voice and tone of distant friends brought near ;
Sounds packed away for unborn ears to hear ;
The lightning tamed, its blazing pinions furled,

Talking around a world
By science, law, humanity subdued

To peaceful brotherhood ;
Or linked to bands and armatures of steel
Compelled to tasks of lever and of wheel.
Or caged in moony globes with dazzling ray

Turning the night to day.
No chemic power, unchallenged, undecoyed,
No blind telluric force left unemployed ;
All matter subject to the imperial mind.
Prompt to the advantage of all human kind ;
The mystic stars themselves reveal to man

In prismic hues defined
Their secret essence and their primal plan.
All Nature stoops and serves. The very sun
We apprentice as a painter. Earth and heaven are won
To run the errands of man's shrewdest thought.
In this vast net the universe is caught ;
While in a larger air his spirit tends

Toward diviner ends.
Dissolving old beliefs, affirming new.
Leaving the false behind to grasp the true ;
Or ranging through the sister realm of art

Far from the crowded mart,
Pursuing forms of beauty and of power.
Like bees from Hower to flower.
And e'en Theology, resisting long
The light, shut in her fortress grim and strong.

Endures at last the change.
And through all sects assumes a loftier range.

POEM BY CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH. 101

Untangling with wise skill the threads perplexed
Of fundamental truth and Bible text,
Dividing the pure essence from the old
Imprisoning form, the earth-dross from the gold,
The frigid product from the warm intent,
The transitory from the permanent ;
No more mid strife of Antinomian wars,
Fearing the fading of its guiding stars.
From miracles and legends quaint unbound.
No mud of Genesis can clog the feet
Of those who tread the undisputed ground
Of natural law, eternal and complete.
And between science and religion see
No conflict, but perpetual amity.

Thus freed from close- walled alleys of the past

For broad highways toward vistas grand and vast.

For us the gates of knowledge open wide,

And the soul's shining leaders side by side

Lead onward far beyond the clouded zone

Of dogmas long outgrown.

A broader faith has risen above the rim

Of the horizon, sad, perplexed, and dim.

Wherein our fathers saw
The limits of religion, truth, and law.
The frowning visage of a creed austere,
The visions born of superstitious fear,
The paralyzing touch that laid its ban
On the free instincts of the natural man.
The curse that like a shadow followed him

With sure relentless pace.
The imagined sins, detectives vague and grim,
The dark satanic mask upon the face
Of an all-loving Father, fade away

In a serener day.

102 COMMEMORATIVE SERYIOES.

No stern, inevitable doom forbids

The guests of heaven and earth to share their feast ;

No sad-eyed morning opes its heavy lids.

The kindling day is all one boundless east

For us, if only true
To the great lights that broaden on our view.

But let us not forget how firm and fast
The present is still rooted in the past ;
Nor, while rejoicing in our ampler space,
The slow steep steps behind us fail to trace, —
To note how gradual is the growth of truth,
How old experience dates its forms from youth.
So, looking back to those who built the shrine.
And met to hear half truths they deemed divine,
We know our fathers planted here the root
Of which the sons possess the flower and fruit.
And fitting 't is we celebrate to-day
"With music, wise discourse, and poet's lay,

And floral offerings gay.
The first small gathering of one little band,
The simple house in a wild alien land.
Whose spiritual corner-stone wc trust
Still stands, although its founders sleep in dust.

These walls, why are they reared ?

Not only for old memories long endeared.

Nor to perpetuate
Sacred traditions of an olden date ;
But for truth loosed from tyrannizing creeds.
And proved in doctrines less than in the deeds ;
For weekly interludes of thought and ])rayer.
Seclusions of release from work and care.
Serene transitions from the world of sense
To the heart's inmost fortress of defence ;

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POEM BY CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH. 103

For upright lives, for strength and love and grace ;
For service of our country and our race ;
For symbols of the unseen world that lies
About and in us, loftier than the skies,
Deeper than earth and sea, amid the war
Of worldly aims the soul's unchanging star

Of safety in the stress
And tide of passion and of selfishness.

And gladly would we note the noble lives,
The names whose memory in this place survives
In golden gleams along the historic thread
That binds the living to the immortal dead :
Those who through stormy days of battles grim
The struggling nation's counsels wisely led ;
And when her pathway grew perplexed and dim,
And help was far, and hope seemed almost fled.

Lifted her drooping head.
Those who as rulers and ambassadors maintained
The strength, the truth, the honor we had gained,
And through successive generations made
One name illustrious, which shall never fade ;
Joined with another of an old renown, —
The name that blends with Harvard's classic shade,
And syllables your old familiar town.

Nor less should we forget the worthy sons

And daughters who tlirough centuries lived and died

Unknown to fame. The muse of history shuns

Their hidden records ; gathered side by side

In yonder burial-ground, they leave no signs

Save in the half-obliterated lines
That tell their birth, their death. Yet not in vain.
Fathers and mothers, were your humble lives ;
Each in its turn an influence that survives,

104 COMMEMORATIYE SERVICES.

A light that shines again
In sacred memories, and in hearths and homes,
Vital as greater names that gild historic tomes.

And here permit, if memory recalls
How fifty years ago within these walls, —

Ah, crude and callow time ! —
The voice you hear intoned a youthful rhyme
To celebrate the founding of this town,
Then wearing its well-earned two-centuried crown.
Ah, fleeting years of youth ! Ah, passage strange
Of scenes since then ; mysterious change on change !
The venerated forms that linked my life
With ancestors revered ; the joy, the strife,
The blithe companionship of younger days,
The opening vistas and the untried ways
All fade in broken visions of the past ;
Yet in the mould of later years recast
They take a shape that old experience lends.
Life is not loss, but gain and growth to ends
Youth could not know, and never could foresee.
And for such faith what shrine more fit than this,
Where past and present meet as with a kiss, —
This temple consecrated in the fires
Of toil and thought through a long line of sires ;
Here where the old beliefs bloom out in free
Full blossom in the soul's calm liberty.
And thoughts unknown to ancient Church or State
Through daily life now throb and penetrate.

Here may the newer faith accept and hold
All sound and reverent virtue of the old ;
No lamps of vital worship left untrimmed,

No high ideal dimmed ;
No genuine buddings of a noble life

ADDRESS BY THE EEV. C. R. ELIOT. 105

Hurt by the honest thinker's pruning knife,
While thought and feeling with united aim
Kindle and keep alive the sacred flame.

Be such the mission of the church, to link
Young hearts that feel with older minds that think, —
Reason and faith fast wedded, bound yet free,
Divinely human life their progeny.

Here may the vital truth that supersedes

The dead forgotten creeds
Warm and persuade the hearts of young and old.
And prompt to lofty thoughts and noble deeds :
A living church, — a Christian brotherhood
In all high effort for the public good.
So may this temple gather in its fold.
Conspiring with all agencies that mould
The race to higher life, till it shall stand

A beacon in the land.
And in the coming centuries ever shine
Steadfast, undimmed, still lit by truth divine.

The Rev. Mr. Wilso?^ : I introduce to you now the
pastor of one of the oldest churches in New England ; a
church with which this church has been always closely
connected, — the Rev. C. R. Eliot of the First Church,
Dorchester.

ADDRESS BY THE EEV. C. E. ELIOT.

I BRING you greetings from the old church which has stood up-
on Meeting-House Hill — the present structure and its predeces-
sors — since 1670. I bring them to you from the church which
has walked along the years side by side with yours, and which
nine years before your church was formed had its beginning.

106 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

I come to bring those greetings from a people who have to-
ward you, as always, feelings of friendship and sympathy. To
bring you these greetings is a pleasant duty to me, the minister
of the First Church. Fortunately it requires very few words to
say some of the very best things ; and so I can say it to you in
the few words necessary, that we, the people of the First Church
in Dorchester, greet you of Quincy, and assure you of our friend-
ship and Christian love.

Thoughts come crowding upon me w^hich, if time permitted, it
might be well to speak. Perhaps you will permit me to say one
or two things. Not very long ago there came into a home not a
thousand miles from where I live a very old cradle, built of the
strongest oak, for a very new comer out of the spirit land. I
have had the privilege of looking often upon that bit of house-
hold furniture, and I have thought that if its oaken panels could
speak to us, what stories they could tell ! They could tell of a
home far across the waters, long, long ago ; they could toll of a
little gathering at Plymouth, England, where a few earnest men
and women came together to listen to words of their pastor, John
White, and to be sent across the water to form the colony here,
near to you, in Dorchester. They could tell of that long voyage
from March until June, when upon the great cradle of the deep
they were rocked through days and weeks and months, until to
these shores they came at last in safety, and the good ship
" Mary and John " cast anchor near Nantasket. These oaken
panels of the old cradle could tell of many things besides.
They could tell us, pcrhn]>s, some of the things which to-day
have not yet l)ecn spoken here, — they could tell us of the early
settlers of this land in which we live. We honor the great men
whose names have come down on the pages of history, — men
who have done great and consi)icuous work in this country.
This old cradle could tell us of the tenderness of mothers' love,
of the faithfuln(\ss of many a sister in this land, of nol)lc women
to whom has l)cen due much of the honor, much of the strength,
much of the sincerity, earnestness, and nobility of the men who

ADDKESS BY THE REV. C K. ELIOT. 107

were able to lay the foundations of this commonwealth, of this
nation, and of our church. It is to honor them, the women of
those early days, that I speak.

I hold in my hand a letter, in fac-simile, of one of your states-
men whose name has been spoken here to-day, — John Quincy
Adams. One sentence from that may be a part of the greeting
from the old church in Dorchester. It was written in 1838:
" I live in the faith and hope of the progressive advancement of
Christian liberty, and expect to abide by the same in death."
It may be our word to you, and yours may be the same to us, —
an exhortation that we all, wherever we worship, wherever we
live, may worship and live in the faith and hope of the progres-
sive advancement of Christian liberty, and abide by the same in
death. " A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday
when it is past, or as a watch in the night." The roots of
American liberty had not their place one hundred years, or two
hundred and fifty years ago, or five hundred or one thousand
years ago, but far back of that. Ages have passed, and slowly
the work of God has been done. God has brought the blind by
a way they knew not, and has led them and is leading them in
paths they have not known. Josus little dreamed of the future
progress and the wondrous history of Christianity. The Amer-
ican revolution found its birth only after those who first spoke
here noble words for liberty had passed away. The war for the
preservation of our Union was not entered upon to bring free-
dom to the slave, yet by paths unknown and to ends unsought
has the nation been led. " I am found of them that ask not for
me ; I am known of them that sought me not." So was it when
the Puritans came to our shores ; they were not believers in
liberty, but they opened the way unconsciously for us ; " they
builded better than they knew."

The Rev. Mr. Wilso?^" : In the record book of the old
First Church of Roxbury there is a long obituary poem

108 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

upon the death of the wife of our first minister, William
Tompson ; other entries show the close connection of the
two churches. I am going to ask you to listen for a few
moments to the present minister of that church, the Rev.
James de Normandie.

ADDRESS BY EEV. JAMES DE NORMANDIE.

It is late to ask this interested but weary parish to listen to
what it was my intention to say. But I will detain you only
for a moment. It may be a matter of passing regret that the
First Church of Christ in Roxbury and the First Church of
Christ in Quincy should have begun their history by a differ-
ence which amounted almost to a persecution ; and especially
that the apostle Eliot, by far the most commanding figure in
the ecclesiastical history of New England, — so gentle, so sweet,
so devoted, wlio for the trouble that it would cost him to untie
his handkerchief, could fling his whole quarter's salary to one
asking him for charity ; who with bleeding feet wandered day
after day through those woods to preach the gospel to the
Indians, — that the apostle Eliot should have been willing to
persecute his Brother Wheelwright in this church. But if that
is a matter of passing regret, it is something at which to rejoice
that such a thing could not happen to-day ; and that these
churclies are now, as they have been so long, and as we trust
they may be for centuries to come, bound together by that spirit
of liberal Christianity which for years they have so bravely main-
tained. The apostle Eliot, as I liavc said, was a commanding
figure in New England history. When Dean Stanley came to
this country a few years ago, and was asked what ])laccs he
wanted to see in America, he replied, " Two : the cliurch where
the apostle Eliot preached, and Plymouth Rock." I cannot
but believe, in looking through the records of his life, that the
apostle Eliot was a little unwilling to do what he did do at that

ADDRESS BY KEY. JAMES DE NORMANDIE. 109

time. We have however to remember that he and his colleague
•were Puritans of the Puritans ; and we know that no sincere, de-
voted Puritan really meant that there should be any liberty of
conscience, that anybody should worship outside the doctrines
which they so bravely defended, in which they lived, and for
which they were willing to die. The early records of these
churches are much the same in their nature, and a review of
them for the past two centuries might be made very helpful as
well as most interesting to this congregation, as you, sir, have
shown. They tell us, these records, of a race of men who were
willing to sacrifice everything for the spiritual realities in which
they believed, — of a race of men that knew no sacrifice too
great, who stopped at no stress of weather, and no weariness of
week-day work, to gather into the sanctuary. Why, we find
mention in these early records of persons coming six, eight,
ten, and even twelve miles, walking to church on Sunday,
and carrying all the way their little children unable to walk.
And then nothing would keep them back, — no little differ-
ence of opinion among themselves, no little dissension with
the minister even, would keep them back from the altar of
worship. It is told in the early history of the church of Bed-
ford in this State that one Saturday afternoon the minister
was heard to have a pretty sharp contention about some fences
and cattle with one of his parishioners ; and the contention was
heard by some of the worshippers, and one of them remarked
that he ventured to say that that neighbor of the minister
would not be found in the church any more. But the next
Sunday morning he was in his pew as usual ; and after the ser-
vices, one who had heard the sharp quarrel of the day before
said to him, "We thought we should never see you in church
after those fierce words." " I 'd have you know," was the reply,
" that though I did have a quarrel with my pastor, I did not
have a quarrel with the gospel." What strikes us most of all in
looking over these records is the earnest observance of the Sab-
bath which ran all through that history. There is the early

110 COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

record of a law of Massachusetts Colony that " for the better
observance of Sunday it is hereby ordered that on Saturday
afternoon, at three of the clock, all those who inhabit the plan-
tation shall surcease from their various em{)loyments and gather
for catechizing, as the minister may direct." These early
records are not only interesting, they might be made exceed-
ingly helpful ; and while we pay our tribute to the early fathers
of our churches, what remains for us is to consecrate ourselves
to the spiritual realities for which they lived. What is it to
us if we join in these historical memories, and yet forget the
work for which they lived and in which they died ?

The Rev. Mr. Wilson : I have great pleasure in in-
troducing the Rev. Joseph Osgood, pastor of the First
Church in Cohasset, — the oldest settled minister of our
denomination in this vicinity, the dear friend of Dr.
Lunt and of Mr. Wells.

ADDKESS BY REV. JOSEPH OSGOOD.

The experience of Cohasset has been almost precisely the same
as the experience of Quincy or Braintree church with regard
to the First Church in Boston. It was only after long years
and earnest trouble that the General Court ordered the forma-
tion of the Cohasset church. This Cohasset church has always
been a neighbor church. The remembrance of Peter Whitney
was very frequently recalled in the Cohasset church. My im-
mediate predecessor, Mr. Harrison Gray Otis Fitz, was brought
up under Peter Whitney and Mr. Lunt. He died after a short
ministry ; he was a man of pure heart, earnest s])irit, and one
very much beloved by the congregation. I remember with great
interest my long connection with Mr. Lunt. I was associated
with him in various ways, and also with Mr. Wells, who was
one of my most intimate friends and associates in the ministry.

■••>a> kin. ha.

LOUISA CATHCRINC.

■ .»■. <t r>w»Tr' •*•*

■■•rriiJ . *• Jatr It*!
•••••••^ •• May W»S

Ar>« Tt
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■»<■!«. ih* k<M <• h» r«_<iT »m* l» ••*

ADDEESS BY REV. JOSEPH OSGOOD. Ill

But I come before you also as a descendant of the first minister
of Braintree, William Tompson. My mother was christened Eliza-
beth Tompson in memory of this connection ; and I have been
reminded by his early experiences and mission of what seems
to me to have been a kind of mission of the Quincy church.
You who have looked into the history will remember that he
was sent as a missionary to Virginia. After a voyage of three
months he arrived on the shores of Virginia. His labors did
not seem to have been very successful there, though he brought
back one convert, who was highly prized in the early Puritan
church. The Virginians were rather glad to get rid of him,
and did not wish to have their peculiar religious institutions
interfered with. This was one of the earliest missionary opera-
tions in the country, and it is significant as indicating in a cer-
tain sense the spirit of the Quincy church. Years passed by,
and another of your citizens was sent; and it was his high
privilege to nominate as the commander of the armies of the
Revolution a Virginian, — thus returning good for evil, and per-
forming in a certain way, in a true spirit, that kind of mission
which Mr. Tompson was sent to perform in the early history
of the church. Has it not been one of the great privileges of
this church to send forth throughout the country words of
religious and spiritual freedom, words of pure patriotism, words
of high statesmanship ; and has not this church been carrying
out the very work which in the ministry of the First Church
was inaugurated ? I remember talking with Charles Francis
Adams the elder, just as he was about to start for his impor-
tant mission as a member of Congress, about the future of
political parties, and about the organizing of the House of which
he was a member, — the House which was organized only after
a long struggle. Have you ever thought what effect has been
produced by these men speaking for civil liberty, for pure
statesmanship, and exerting themselves as they have done for
the progress, freedom, and prosperity of the country ? As these
services are about to close, can I say any better word to you for

112

COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES.

your future than to take example from the past, and as your
fathers have been, so try to be yourselves in the future, carry-
ing the highest principles of spiritual, religious, and civil free-
dom and uprightness and national honor into all the States of
the Union, and not only into the States of the Union, but also
into all parts of the world ? For our civilization and our culture
are such that a true word in behalf of religion, in behalf of free-
dom, in behalf of patriotism, in behalf of the highest interests
of man, is flashed over the whole civilized world, and may be
like good seed sown in good ground, producing a hundredfold
to the glory of God.

The entire congregation joined in singing ^' Old Hun-
dred," and the services were closed with the benediction
pronounced by the Rev. C. E,. Eliot in the absence of the
Rev. Edward Norton.

During the exercises the pastor asked all those to
stand who had been present fifty years before a-t the
two hundredth anniversary. It was ascertained that
the following persons participated in the celebration of
both anniversaries : —

Miss Naxcy Brackett,
Samuel E. Brackett,
Miss E. C. Adams,
Mrs. Sarah C. Underwood,
Mrs. Ebexezer Adams,
Edwin W. Marsh,
J. Franklin Burrell,
Mrs. Jos. F. French,
Dexter Pierce,

CUKLSTOPHER P. CrANCII,

Mrs. Ann E. Baxter,
Susanna G. Field,
Lucy A. Floyd,

Eelief B. Floyd,

Wm. L. Brackett,

Mrs. Wm. L. Brackett,

Mrs. Amos Warren Stetson,

Susanna B. Marsh,

Geo. L. Gill,

Mrs. Geo. L. Gill,

Edwin Gill,

Franklin Curtis,

Mrs. M. a. Perkins,

]\Irs. Chas. a. Si'ear,

Mrs. Adams Whitney,

Miss Ann Curtis.

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LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

AVERY large number of congratulatory letters were
received by the Committee on Invitations. Most
of these are interesting, some of them remarkably so ;
and to leave any unpublished bears a look almost of
a lack of due appreciation. But in order to bring these
pages within the designed limits a selection had to be
made. So, for the most part, there are here preserved
letters illustrating historical facts, or from persons con-
nected in an especial way with the Quincy Church and
Quincy people.

LETTER FROM WHEELWRIGHT'S EXETER CHURCH.

Exeter, N". H., Sept. 18, 1889.
Mr. Lewis Bass.

Dear Sir, — I thank you most heartily for the invitation to
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the church which
Rev. John Wheelwright ministered to, as first pastor, at Mount
Wollaston, now Quincy. It would give me much pleasure to be
present, if possible, — to look upon the faces of some of the men
who have inherited from Wheelwright his sturdy independence
of character and resistance to tyranny, whether royal or ecclesi-
astical, and for a few hours to breathe with you the very atmos-
phere of freedom.

The New England of to-day is under immense obligation to
Wheelwright and to other heretics of like indomitable spirit, as
well as to your famous Adams family, for the privilege of think-

114 LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

ing and speaking its deepest and truest convictions as to what-
ever concerns the welfare of man.

Twice at least the Christian Church has held full sway. Once
in Europe in the Middle Ages, under the Catholic supremacy ;
and again in Massachusetts, under tlie Puritan supremacy. To
what were its failures due ? I think, in the latter case, Mr.
Brooks Adams, speaking in the mildest terms, would say, to the
misinterpretation of the spirit of the Founder of Christianity.

But enough of this. I do not quite see why you celebrate
your anniversary in 1889. "Why not 1886 ? Unless I am in
error in the matter, according to " Winthrop's Journal " and
the " Short Story," several of the Boston communion, who had
desired Wheelwright's settlement over the Boston church in
conjunction with Wilson and Cotton (which settlement Win-
throp resisted and prevented), were desirous to form a church
at Mount Wollaston, where they resided and cultivated farms ;
and it was voted without objection, upon their application, that
W^heel Wright be assigned to them as their preacher. lie at
once, in October 1G36, at the age of forty-four, commenced his
pastoral labors at that place, — afterwards called Braintrce, now
Quincy. So far as appears, Wheelwright discharged his duties
faithfully and acceptably at Mount Wollaston, until he was ban-
ished from Massachusetts in November, 1637. In April, 1638,
he was negotiating with tlie Indians for a tract of land in and
around what is now Exeter, where he established in that year
the First Church. But perhaps you have some most valid
reason for the present date of celebration.

Our own celebration in June, 1888, of the two hundred and
fiftictli anniversary of the town and church was full of interest
to all our people, and an occasion long to be remembered.

I sincerely hope your own cclel)ration will be worthy of the
occasion and of the distinguished men who have added lustre
not only to your town and State, but to our country.

Very respectfully. Swift r>YiXGTON.

(Pastor First Church, Exeter.)

LETTERS OP CONGRATULATION. 115

FROM THE REV. A. C. NICKERSON, OF EXETER.

Exeter, N. H., Sept. 23, 1889.

To Messrs. Charles F. Adams, Lewis Bass, Edward H. Dewson, and
William L. Faxon, Committee.

Gentlemen, — From a New England town which a year ago
celebrated its quarter millennial I send you greeting on the
occasion of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first
parish of Quincy, Mass. Your first minister, the Rev. John
Wheelwright, a graduate of Sidney College, Cambridge, Eng-
land, was also the first pastor here, and the founder of our
town. The same religious freedom which here he sought it
has been the province and tlie pleasure of your church to
maintain, and as your altars, sanctified by the dust of two of
America's strongest and freest sons, shall resound with fervent
praises, we tender to you and your parish our earnest
felicitations.

Very respectfully yours,

A. C. NiCKERSON.

(Pastor of the Unitarian Church, Exeter, N. H.)

FROM THE REV. EDWARD E. HALE, D.D.

RoxBURY, Mass., Sept. 17, 1889.

My dear Wilson, — I am very sorry to say that I cannot be
here on the 29th. I have an engagement of some time standing
which I cannot change.

You have my best congratulations on so remarkable an anni
versary, and my best hopes that for a quarter of a millennium
more the church may be as useful and as prosperous.

Always truly yours,

Edw. E. Hale.

116 LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES AND "DOROTHY Q."

Beverly Farms, Mass., Sept. 18, 1889.

My dear Sir, — I regret that I shall not be able to have the
pleasure of being present at the services on the 29th of Septem-
ber. I feel as if the shade of my great-grandmother, Dorothy
Quincy, would be there, with those of many others whose lin-
eage I share by my maternal ancestry.

I was pleased to learn from your note that " Dorothy Q." —
my Dorothy, not Governor Hancock's, who was her niece — was
born in 1709, — just a hundred years before I came into atmos-
pheric existence.

I trust we shall have a full account of the commemoration,
and shall look forward to it with much interest.

Believe me, dear sir,

Very truly yours,

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

FROM THE REV. R. S. STORRS, D.D.

Sunset Ridge, Shelter Island Heights,

Sept. 18, 1889.

Messrs. Charles F. Adams, Lewis Bass, Edward H. Dewsox, William
L. Faxon, Committee.

Gentlemen, — I should be most happy to accept the invitation
with which you have honored me, and to attend the services in
commemoration of the completion of two hundred and fifty
years in tlie history of the first church within the ancient limits
of Braintree ; but public duties require my presence elsewhere
on the day of your proposed celebration.

Your stone temple, built in my boyhood, used to excite my
adniiriiiir awe whenever I passed it in my father's chaise or in
Mr. Gillctt's stage-coach. I thought it then probably a rival of

DOROTHY Q.

(Frnm the Oricjinil Painting. 1

DOROTHY Q.

Graxdmotheii's mothfr: lior age, 1 guuss, W'uo the painter was none may tell, —

Thirteen sumnieis, nr --(jniething les? ; One who.^e be.-t was not over well ;

Ciirli-h bu>t, hut Wduianiv air; Hard anil drv, it must be confessed.

Smooth, Miuarc- iMiehetid with iiiiruUed hair, Flat as a rose that has long been jiressed ;

Lips that lover has never Ui>?ed ; Yet in lier clieek the hues are briiilit,

Taper fingers and slender wiist ; Dainty colors of red and white,

Hanging .-leeves of >iilT brocade, — And in lier slender shape are seen

So they painted the little maid. Hint and promise of stately mien.

On her hand a parrot green I.onk not on Iier with eyes of scorn, —

Sits uinnoving and broods serene. I)i rothy Q. was a lady born '

Hold u)) tlic canvas full in view, — Ay, since the galloping Xormans came,

l,ocik ! there 's a rent the light sliines through, England's annals have known her name '.

Dark with a century's Iringe of dust ; And still to the three-hilled rebel town

Tliat was a l!ed-('oat's rai>ier-thrust 1 Dear is that ancient name's renown :

Such is the tale the lady old — For n:any a civic wreath they -won,

Dorothy's daughter's daughter — told. The youthful siie and the gray-haired son.

Vtirtr Wetidc/I Holme

B()i:\ IX THi: oi.i) (Jiixcv ^NIaxskix.

Doratliv. y"= Dnuiiliti'i- of Kdmund (^iiiiisev. K^(l^, & ^I* Dorathy. hi.s wife.
was Ijorn v*^ 4* Jantiarv, 1 70:>. — Brahitrec liccoiih.

Bai'tizfi) I!Y Tin: IJkv. Joskpii ]Mai;sh.

Colonel Quincey's family all baj)tize(l, April oO. 1721. — Fii:<t C'Inirch
necoiyI.<.

Admitif.i) to Fill C'oM^irxiux isv thf Ukv. Johx IlAxrf)CK.
Dorothy, dauiilitei- of Col. Quiin-y. May 2^. 17-27. — First C/nirc/i Records.

Mahriei) to Kdward Jackson, of Uo-^ton. Deeeniher 7. 17.3S.

DiKl) in 17(;'2.

Her «on. Jonathan Jaek«on. had a daii^liter Sarah, who married the Re\.
Al.iel Holmes, father of Oliver Wendell Holmes.

LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION. 117

Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem, with Rev. Mr. Whitney for its
high priest. This early impression might hot be altogether
reproduced if I were to be with you now; but I hope that a
Christian prosperity and usefulness, solid and spacious, may
mark the progress of your Society through its second quarter-
millennium.

Very truly yours, R. S. Storks.

FROM THE REV. THOMAS HILL, D.D.

Portland, Me., Sept. 23, 1889.
To Charles F. Adams, Lewis Bass, and others. Committee.

Brethren in Christ, — I am sorry that it will not be in my
power to join with you in the celebration to which you so kindly
invite me for next Sunday afternoon. My interest in the First
Church, Quincy, goes back nearly, if not quite, to the time when
my first interest in national politics made me grieve that one of
its most honored members failed of re-election to the Presidency
of the United States ; and that interest has by no means been
diminished by the very pleasant recollections which I carry now
for nineteen years of the kind way in which many attempts to
serve you were received during the temporary absence of your
pastor.

Very truly yours, Thomas Hill.

FROM THE REV. CALEB D. BRADLEE, D.D., PH.D.

BosTOX, Sept. 17, 1889.
Lewis Bass, Esq., Quincy, Mass.

Dear Sir, — I have received this day your very kind invita-
tion, in behalf of the committee, to attend the services in com-
memoration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of
the foundation of the First Church, Quincy, that are to take
place on Sunday, September 29, at 2 p. m. ; and although my

118 LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

engagements on the day named will be such as not to permit me
to be present, none the less do I thank you, and those whom you
represent, for the courtesy extended, and rejoice .with you in
your sacred memories of the past, in your great success in the
present under the consecrated teachings of your faithful pastor,
and in your glorious hopes for the future.

Respectfully,

Caleb D. Bradlee.

FROM MR. CHARLES BRECK, AGED NIN"ETY-TWO.

To Lewis Bass, Esq. For the Committee of Invitation for the Celebration
of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Church in
Quincy.

Gentlemen, — For your kindness in remembering me you
have my sincere thanks. Under other circumstances I should
have been most happy to have joined you in celebrating the day ;
but the weight of almost fourscore and twelve years admon-
ishes me to be very careful about exposing myself in such public
meetings. There are probably but very few beside myself who
can remember attending the old church longer than I can. It
is seventy-eight years ago last spring since I first attended wor-
ship in that church. I remember its situation and many of its
occupants very well, — the venerable and ncvcr-to-be-forgotten
Rev. Peter Whitney in the pulpit, beside him the venerable
James Brackett, with his ear-trumpet, that no sound or word
should be lost. The deacons' scats below were occupied by
Deacons Yeasie and I think Spear ; in the pews the venerable
John Adams, Ex-Presidcnt of the United States ; and oft beside
him in later years his honorable son, J. Q. Adams, who was one
of the most attentive listeners to tlie discourses that I ever
noticed ; tlie Hon. Josiah Quincy, and many other distinguished
characters, with their families. In the clioir there was lleze-
kiah liass with liis large bass-viol, John Pray with his fiddle,

LETTEKS OF CONGEATULATIOX. 119

Capt. Josiah Bass with his noble voice to lead the singing, old
Mr. Hayden, tything-man, with his long pole to keep us boys in
order, and with which the disorderly were very sure to receive
a smart rap.

And when I compare those times with the present, I could but
wish that I was able to attend your celebration and hear some-
thing of its origin and growth to the time which I remember.
There is one thing which I often think of when I compare the
old churches — with their bare wooden seats, when the women
were obliged to carry foot-stoves filled with coals to keep from
freezing, and the men and boys sat shivering through a long
service, with the thermometer near or quite at zero — witli the
costly churches of the present day, warmed to summer heat
throughout, their neat and comfortable seats, and short services :
does pure religion keep pace with the other improvements ? If
so, all may be well. But when in the silent watches of the night
I am conning over these things, and taking myself for an exam-
ple, I think there is great room for improvement before I can
hear those joyful words, " Well done, good and faithful." These
tilings are worth pondering upon and remembering by the young
as well as by the old.

In that old church I heard the first temperance discourse
which I can remember, some seventy or more years ago. The
Rev. Mr. Norton, of Weymouth I think, had exchanged with the
Rev. Mr. Whitney. In his discourse he gave the number of in-
habitants of a certain town, without naming it (some supposed it
vras Quincy, and that it was a plan to administer a rebuke which
Mr. Whitney did not wish to do himself), and the large quantity
of liquors which were consumed there yearly, and the misery
which was occasioned thereby. Rum-drinking was so common
in those days that the discourse made but little impression, except
to be ridiculed ; yet we trust that in after years his good advice,
by one, at least, was not forgotten, and we trust never will be.

Chaiiles Breck.

MiLTOX, Sept. 22, 1889.

120 LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

FROM THE REV. HENRY A. MILES, D.D.

HiNGHAM, Sept. 18, 1889.
To Mr, Lewis Bass, of the Committee of the First Church in Quincy.

Dear Sir, — I am honored by the invitation to attend the
services commemorative of the two hundred and fiftieth anni-
versary of the Quincy church.

None of our oldest churches have inspired me with a pi'O-
founder respect. It is not merely the eminent men whose
names are indissolubly connected with it, nor my recollections
of the sainted Lunt, — the only one of your pastors whom I much
knew, — but quite as much the consistent spirit, the unity of pur-
pose, which has run through its whole history, never locked up
in an unprogressive theology, and never opening its doors to the
vagaries of radicalism.

As I pass in the train through your new city I never need
the shining dome on your church to remind me of the historical
glory that covers that temple.

I am slowly recovering from a protracted illness, and have as
yet gone only a few rods from my house. It w^ill be impossible
for me to be with you on the 29th instant, and I can only send
to you my heartiest and best wishes.

Very cordially yours,

Henry A. Miles.

FROM JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Dear Sir, — It will Ijc a groat gratification to me to attend

the delivery of your occasional discourse on Sunday the 22d,

and an equal disappointment that by reason of an engagement

already entered into to spend the 29th at Wareham, I shall not

be able to bo present at the celebration.

Yours truly, J. Q. Adams.

Skpt. 21, 1889.

THE ADAMS MANSION.

■'" n; Av;::;.; v

LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION. 121

FROM THE PILGRmS' CHURCH AT PLYMOUTH.

Plymouth, Mass., Sept. 26, 1889.
Mr. Lewis Bass, Quincy, Mass.

Dear Sir, — It is with regret that I am compelled to decline
the invitation to be present at the services of commemoration to
be held in the First Church in Quincy on Sunday next.
The duties of my own pulpit require my presence here.
The First Parish in Plymouth sends greeting and congratu-
lations to her younger sister, with best wishes for continued
prosperity.

Sincerely yours,

Chas. p. Lombard.

FROM THE REV. R. C. WATERSTON.

Mountain Cottage, Whitefield, N. H.,

Sept. 20, 1889.
Lewis Bass, Esq.

Dear Sir, — I desire through you to acknowledge with
thanks your kind invitation to attend the two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the First Church of Quincy, — an occa-
sion of sacred interest and which must be in every respect a
most memorable occasion.

Nothing could give me greater pleasure than to participate
in such a commemoration ; but I exceedingly regret that the
condition of my health is such as to render it impossible. In
thought and in spirit I shall be with you, cherishing with you
grateful remembrance of those remarkable and illustrious men
who have gone forth from that church to fill with honor the
most responsible stations in the gift of their country, and to
leave behind them names which the nation and the world de-
light — and ever will delight — to hold in the highest veneration
and gratitude. "While they were beloved by the church, they

122 LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

were also the benefactors both of their country and the world.
The associations awakened by such a commemoration must in-
evitably strike their roots deep, and spread their influences far
and wide.

No church, I cannot but think, on this whole continent, has
reason to cherish with such gratitude the memories of the past.

To be present at such a commemoration would be the great-
est possible privilege, which nothing but the condition of my
health could cause me to forego. With many thanks for your
kind remembrance,

I am, most respectfully and sincerely, yours,

R. C. Waterston.

FROM THE REV. G. M. BARTOL.

Lancaster, Mass., Sept. 27, 1889.
Mr. Lewis Bass, Quincy.

Dear Sir, — The invitation of the First Church of Quincy,
by its committee, for the 29th instant, was received with un-
usual pleasure.

Any retrospect of the two hundred and fifty years now so
near completion must be a gratifying one, bearing witness to
repeated and successful efforts for the extension of civil, re-
ligious, and industrial freedom, of just and humane principles,
and of knowledge and intelligence among the mass of the people
by improved methods of instruction and the multiplication of
free libraries. In the promotion of all these ends a long line
of good and wise and faithful men connected with your religious
society have borne a noteworthy share. And surely it is well
that the chain which unites its coming anniversary with the
memories of what they were and what thoy have done should be
strengthened and brightened, as it will be, by your proposed
observance.

Any commemoration which makes the past predominate over

LETTERS OF CONGRA.TULATION. 123

the present and the future, or which makes more of the date of an
event than of the event itself, — forgetting that there is no such
thing as the precise fixing of a date, because no ahnanac of ours
can give us a perfect measure of time, — is false and superstitious ;
but a commemoration which associates the particular occasion
with events that illustrate important principles, is legitimate, and
wholesome in its effects. It inculcates those principles more
forcibly upon us. It makes us feel the unity of the past with
the present, and of the present with the future, the unity of all
being, and the unity of all portions of the great providential
plan which is ever working out the purposes for which we were
placed where we are.

Be pleased to accept herewith an assurance of our cordial
thanks for your thoughtful remembrance of the First Church of
Lancaster. I am sorry to be obliged to add my sincere regret
in finding that other engagements must prevent me from avail-
ing myself of a privilege which I should so highly esteem.

With earnest desires that the occasion may prove as pleasant
and profitable to all interested as you yourselves can wish,
Very respectfully and truly,

George M. Baetol.

FROM THE HOX. JOHN D. LONG.

Boston, Sept. 18, 1889.
Dear Mr. Wilson, — I regret very much that I cannot avail
myself of your very kind invitation to the church commemora-
tion at Quincy on the 29th ; but I expect to be away on that
Sunday, and my engagements are such that I cannot change
them. It will certainly be a memorable occasion, and I send
my most cordial good wishes.

Very truly yours,

John D. Long.
Rev. D. M. Wilson, Quincy.

124 LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

FROM THE REV. JOHN CORDNER, D.D.

Boston, Sept. 18, 1889.
Mr. Lewis Bass.

Dear Sir, — Many thanks to your committee for the courtesy

of an invitation to your proposed commemoration September 29.

The First Church, Quincy, has an honorable record, and lias had

in the past, as it has in the present, names eminent in public

and private life. It would be to me a great pleasure to be with

you on an occasion so interesting ; but I feel that I must deny

myself. The state of my health just now compels me, much to

my regret, to decline your very kind invitation.

Truly yours,

John Cordner.

FROM THE REV. GEORGE S. BALL.

Upton, Sept. 18, 1889.

To the Committee on Invitations to attend the Services in Commemoration
of the Comjiletion of Two Hundred and Fifty Years of the First Church
in Quincy.

Gentlemen, — I thank you most heartily for your cordial invi-
tation to be present at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
services of your church. It has a most marked history, and one
well worthy commemoration. The ministers and laymen of it
have been distinguished for scholarship and statesmanship, —
for ability, piety, and public influence.

During the ministry of that marked scholar and eloquent
preacher, Rev. William P. Lunt, whose death was such a loss
to your church and the community at large, I became souicwhat
interested in the society and acquainted with its history. Mr.
Lunt quite frequently exchanged pulpits with me, to the great
delight of my people at Plymouth. To me the opportunity to
hear him preach was a very great pleasure, and in his most
inspired moments he impressed me as among the great pulpit

LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION. 125

orators. Your invitation and anniversary recall these days
before the war.

I am also interested anew by dear friends who are now mem-
bers of your parish, and deeply regret a combination of circum-
stances which, I fear, will prevent me from being present as I
desire to be.

I know it must be a deeply interesting occasion. May it also
be a profitable one, coming to you as an inspiration for fuller
life as the years go by.

In the bonds of fellowship,

I am most truly yours, Geo. S. Ball.

FROM THE REV. GEORGE A. THAYER.

Cincinnati, Sept. 18, 1889.
Lewis Bass, Esq.

My dear Sir, — I should be very glad if just at this time I
could be a resident of some town nearer Quincy than is my Ohio
home, that I miglit join in the celebration to which you kindly
invite me, of your two hundred and fiftieth church anniversary.
But a thousand miles is not easily traversed in a busy season,
and I must be content to rejoice in the spirit with your people
over what, to a dweller in one of the newer sections of a com-
paratively youtliful and recent republic, seems an exceeding ven-
erable age, — an age which does not consist solely in number of
years, but in honorable service to all the higher interests of the
community in which the church has lived. To an institution as
well as to an individual the words of the book of " Wisdom "
apply : " Honorable age is not tliat which standeth in length
of time, . . . but wisdom is the gray hair, and an unspotted life
is old age." And such maturity certainly belongs to the career
of excellent service for God and for man of which your people
are about to take a retrospect.

Very truly yours, George A. Thayer.

126 LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

FROM THE REV. CHARLES NOTES.

North Andover, Sept. 25, 1889.
Mr. Lewis Bass.

Dear Sir, — It would give me great pleasure to attend the
services of the First Church, Quincy, in commemoration of its
completion of two hundred and fifty years. My pulpit duties
at North Andover on September 29 will not, however, allow
me to be present.

I regret this the more because I was once honored with an
invitation to become pastor of the First Church, and have fol-
lowed with special interest the record of its welfare and prosper-
ity. May its future history tell of as faithful services to the
cause of truth and righteousness as does that of the past two
hundred and fifty years.

Truly your friend,

Charles Notes.

FROM SAMUEL A. BATES.

South Braintree, Sept. 20, 1889.

Messrs. Adams, Bass, Dewson, and Faxon, Committee of First Church,
Quincy, Mass.
Many thanks for your kind invitation to the two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of your church. If nothing prevents, I
shall be present on that occasion to enjoy with you the re-
hearsal of the noble deeds of our fathers who established on
our soil the principles which have in the past governed the
nation, and which I trust in the future will guide its destinies
with success. May success attend your efforts in endeavoring
to tlirow light upon the past history of your churcli, and of
kec[)ing the acts of those sires green in our memories ! Again
thanking you for your kind invitation,
I remain yours truly,

Samuel A. Bates.

LETTERS OP CONGRATULATION. 127

FROM MRS. F. AUGUSTUS WHITNEY.

Allston, Sept. 19, 1889.
Mrs. F. Augustus Whitney, in acknowledging the cordial in-
vitation of the committee to the commemorative services of the
First Cliurch in Quincy, feels great regret that illness will pre-
vent her being present on an occasion in which she feels deep
interest as being associated with the society so closely identified
with the early interests of her late husband and of his family.

FROM THE REV. A. B. MUZZEY.

Cambridge, Sept. 20, 1889.

The First Church, Quincy, the parent and home of great men,
nationally, intellectually, and spiritually, and so honored in its
long history, does wisely and justly in commemorating its two
hundred and fiftieth anniversary by special services.

For these reasons, and drawn also toward your church as I
am by personal relations and associations, I accept with pecu-
liar pleasure their cordial invitation, and although eighty-seven
years of age, trust nothing will prevent my attendance.

Artemas B. Muzzey.

FROM SELECTMEN OF TOWNS IN OLD BRAINTREE.

HoLBROOK, Mass., September, 1889,
Mr. Lewis Bass.

Dear Sir, — Your invitation for the 29th is received, for
which accept our thanks. We will endeavor to be present.

Yours,

Abram C. Holbrook,

Chairman of Selectmen.

128 LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

Randolph, Mass., Sept. 20, 1889.
Lewis Bass, Esq.

Dear Sir, — Your invitation to selectmen to attend the ser-
vices in commemoration of the completion of the two hundred
and fifty years of the First Church, Quincy, has come to hand,
and the selectmen have voted to accept the invitation and be
present at the services. With many thanks for the invitation,

I am yours respectfully,

Michael J. Daly,

Secretary of Selectmen.

Braintree, Sept. 23, 1889.
Mr. Bass.

Your invitation to attend the two hundred and fiftieth anni-
versary of the formation of the First Church is received, and
thanking you for the same, will be pleased to attend.

Nathaniel F. Hunt,

For the Selectmen of the Town of Braintree.

FROM THE REV. S. H. WIXKLEY.

Boston, Sept. 18, 1889.
Mr. Lewis Bass.

Dear Sir, — Permit me through you to thank the committee
for its kind invitation to be present at the coming two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of the First Church in Quincy. I have
two services for that afternoon, which will prevent my accept-
ing the same. What a grand history that church has ! And
what names inscril»cd upon its roll! May its future be even
more successful than its past!

Regretfully,

S. II. Winkley.

LETTERS OP CONGEATULATION. 129

FROM THE REV. EDWARD H. HALL.

Cambridge, Sept. 20, 1889.
My dear Mr. Wilson, — I have just received your note and
the ofRcial invitation to your anniversary, and feel of course tlie
greatest interest in the celebration. It seems like a continua-
tion of our own three years ago, and I should be extremely
sorry not to have our church represented. Unfortunately, how-
ever, it will be quite impossible for me to get over in time for
the entire exercises, even if I can get to you at all. I have a
meeting immediately after the morning service which will pre-
vent my reaching the 1.30 train ; and if I understand the time-
table aright, there is no other train till 5, — which will be too
late, I suppose, for any of the ceremonies. If it were possible,
I would come in for what little I could get at the close. I need
not say how much I regret this, as otherwise I should enjoy
coming very much, and should do my best to say a few words
of greeting. Hoping that the occasion will be an altogether
successful one,

I am sincerely yours,

Edward H. Hall.

FROM THE REV. CRAWFORD NIGHTINGALE.

AsHMONT, Dorchester, Sept. 17, 1889.

Dear Sir, — The card of invitation to the commemorative

services at Quincy on the 29tli instant was received with much

pleasure. The occasion will have a special interest for me, as

my ancestors for several generations were residents of "that

part of Braintree now called Quincy." Among them was

Joseph Nightingale, who married Hannah Bass, and who

named as executors of his will " Samuel Sewell and Samuel

Bass, his trusty friends and kinsmen, and John Adams."

Yours truly,

Crawford Nightingale.

9

130 LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

FROM THE OLD HINGHAM CHURCH.

HiNGHAM, Sept. 23, 1889.
The First Parish in Hingham accepts with pleasure the in-
vitation of the First Church, Quincy, to send representatives
to its commemorative services, September 29, and has ap-
pointed four delegates for that purpose.

Cordially and respectfully yours,

Ebed L. Ripley,

Chairman of the Committee of the First Parish in Uingham.

FROM HARRISON J. DAWES.

Newton Centre, Sept. 20, 1889.
Mr. Lewis Bass.

Dear Sir, — I am very sorry to be obliged to decline the in-
vitation to be present at the two hundred and fiftieth anni-
versary of the founding of our church. My health does not
permit of my going out. In behalf of the Committee on Invi-
tation please accept my regrets, and also my heartfelt good
wishes for the continued prosperity of the society.
Respectfully,

Harrison J. Dawes.

FROM THE REV. EDWIN DAVIS.

Orange, Mass., Sept. 27, 1889.
Mr. Bass.

Dear Sir, — I wish gratefully to acknowledge the receipt of
a very kind invitation from the committee who have tlie matter
in charge to attend the celebration of the two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the First Congrega-
tional Parish in Quincy. I regret exceedingly that circum-
stances beyond my control comjiel me to be absent from town
on the 29th instant, which were they otherwise would permit me

LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION. 131

to enjoy the pleasure of being present with you at that time.

Be assured of my interest in the event, and accept the assurance

that " though absent in body, I am present in spirit." Thanking

the Committee for their kind invitation,

I am, fraternally yours,

Edwin Davis.

FROM THE REV. F. FROTHINGHAM.

Old Orchard, Me., Sept. 26, 1889.
Mr. Lewis Bass, Quincy, Mass.

My dear Sir, — I beg you to accept my thanks for your kind
invitation on behalf of the First Church of Quincy to the cele-
bration of its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. How gladly
would I be present to share in the memories and associations of
an occasion so rich in both ! But I am away from home, and
must deny myself the privilege. But I cordially express the hope
that the celebration of your anniversary may be not only full
of good inspiration from the long past, but abound in good
promise and augury for the longer and may it be the ever-
improving and greatening future. With all good wishes,
I remain, dear sir, your and its friend and servant,

Fredk. Frothingham.

FROM GEORGE GREENLEAF DAWES.

Boston, Sept. 23, 1889.
Mr. Lewis Bass.

Dear Sir, — I received an invitation from the First Church
of Quincy to be present at their two hundred and fiftieth anni-
versary. It will be impossible for me to be present ; but I feel a
great interest in the welfare of the church wherein I was reared,
and where my ancestors for many generations have worshipped.
Thanking you for remembering me,

I am very truly yours,

George Greenleaf Dawes.

PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS.

AT the annual parish meeting, the 11th of March, 1889, the fol-
lowing named persons were appointed to make all arrangements
for the proper celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
of the gathering of First Church : —

Rev. D. M. Wilson, Charles Francis Adams,

Edward H. Dewson, Lew^is Bass,

William Lyman Faxon, Mrs. William B. Rice,

Mrs. Wilson Tisdale, Mrs. J. Franklin Faxon,

Mrs. John Q. A. Field, IVIrs. Thomas A. Whicher.

A meeting of this committee was held soon afterward. The pas-
tor acted as chairman, and Mr. Lewis Bass was chosen secretary.
It was decided to have the commemorative services on the afternoon
of Sunday, the 29th of September, 1889, and to invite several gen-
tlemen to deliver addresses. The pastor announced that he would
preach two introductory sermons, — one on the morning of September
22, and the other on the morning of September 29. The following
sub-committees were then appointed to carry out the arrangements
in detail : —

€:ommittee on In6itati0n0.

Mr. Charles Francis Adams, Mr. Edward H. Dewson,
Mr. Lewis Bass, Mr. William Lyman Faxon.

<3n ^r03ramme.

Rev. D. MuNRo Wilson, Mr. L H. H. Johnson,

Mr. Harry L. Rice.

134

PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS.

©n Emption of (Surata.

Mr, Edward II. Dewson,
Mr. George L. Gill,
Mr. Joseph L. Whiton,
Mr. J. Henry Emery,
Mr. Joseph C. Morse,

Mr. Charles A. Rowland,
Mr. John Q. A. Field,
Mr. Frank B. Foster,
Mrs. J. Franklin Faxon,
Mrs. Lewis Bass,

Mrs. John O. Holden.

©n ©Ecoraturns.

Mr. Fred B. Rice,
Mr. Edward Whicher,
Mr, William I. Dewson,
Mrs. William B. Rice,

Mrs. George B. Wendell,
Mrs. Eben C. Stanwood,
Mrs. George L. Keyes,
Miss Minnie J. Pratt.

Mr. William B. Rice,
;Mr. George H, Field,
Mr. Henry M. Faxon,

©n Pusic,

Mr. John Shaw, Jr.,
Mrs. Wilson Tisdale,
Mrs. Horace F. Spear,

Miss Abby C. Chamberlin.

©n 13ktixt&])mtntQ.

Mrs. Thomas A. Whicher,
Mrs. John Q. A. Field,
Mrs. James H. Stetson,
Mrs. M. A. Perkins,
Mrs. James II. Slade,

Mrs. RuFUS Foster,
Mrs. Ibrahim Morrison,
Mrs George W. Morton,
Mrs. Samuel Crane,
Mrs. Eugene N. IIultman.

Mr. Henry II. Faxon,
Mr. Edwin B. Pratt,
Mr James Edwards,

©n iFinancE.

Mr. Charles H. Porter,
Mr. J. Franklin Faxon,
Mr. Luther S. Anderson.

PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 135

OUR QUARTO-MILLENNIAL CHOIR.

"William B. Rice, Leader. Abby C. Chamberlin, Organist.

Sopranos.
Mrs. Horace F. Spear, Miss May McPhail,

Miss Minnie W. Litchfield, Miss S. Elizabeth Ackerman,
Mrs. Cyrus T. Sherman, Miss Grace Isaacs,

Miss Laura Hay^'ard.

Tenors.
James F. Harlow, Walter M. Packard,

George Harvey Field.

Altos.
Mrs. George Harvey Fif.ld, Miss Mary Gardner,
Mrs. "Walter M. Packard, Mrs. "William Austin "Winslow,

Miss LiLLiE Taber, Miss Lillie Scammell.

Basses.
Peter B. Gomez, George Arthur Sherman,

Charles H. Porter, Jr., J. Franklin Burrell,

Cyrus T. Sherman.

APPENDIX.

THE COVENANT.

THE following is the original Covenant which was pre-
sented when the Church was gathered, and then signed
by the two ministers and six others. The Rev. John Hancock
printed it with his sermons preached at the close of the first
century of our Church's existence : —

" "We poor unworthy creatures, who have sometime lived without
Christ and without God in the world, and so have deserved rather
fellowship with the devil and his angels than with God and his
saints, being called of God out of this world to the fellowship of
Christ by the Ministry of the Gospel, and our hearts made willing
to join together in Church Fellowship, so by the help and strength
of Christ, renounce the devil, the wicked world, a sinful flesh, with
all the remnants of Anti-Christian pollution wherein sometimes
we have walked, and all our former evil ways, and do give up our-
selves, first to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and offer up
our proffered subjection to our Lord Jesus Christ as the only Priest,
Prophet and King of his Church, beseeching him in his rich grace and
free mercy to accept us for his people in the blood of his Covenant ;
and we give up ourselves also one to another by the will of God,
promising in the name and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
worketh in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure,
to worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth, and to walk in brotherly
love and the duties thereof according to the will of the Gospel, to
the edification of the body and of each member therein, and to be
guided in all things according to God's revealed will, seeking to
advance the Glory of Jesus Christ, our head, both in Church and
Brotherly Communion, thro' the assistance of his Holy Spirit which
he hath promised to his Church ; and we do manifest our joint con-

138

APPENDIX.

sent herein this day in presence of this assembly, by this our present
public profession, and by giving to one another the right hand of
fellowship.

" Wm. Tompson, Pastor. Jonx Dassett.

Henry Flvnt, Teacher. AVilliam Potter.

George Rose, Martix Saunders.

Stephen Kinsley, Elder Gregory Belcher."

Samuel Bass,
Alexander Winchester,
Richard Brackett,
Francis Eliot,
William Alice,
Robert Parmenter,
Samuel Tompson,
Thomas Bass.
Joseph Penniman.
Nathaniel Wales.
Benjamin Savil.
Moses Paine.
Gregory Belcher.
Peter Adams,
Samuel Savil,
Jonathan Webb,
John Adams,
Joseph Palmer,
Moses Belcher,
Joseph Neal, Jr.,
Daniel Arnold,
Benjamin Bass,
Ebenezer Adams,
Jonathan Webb.
Elijah Veazie.
Jonathan Bass.
JosiAii Adams.
Daniel Spear,
Samuel Savil,

AViLLIAM SpF.AR,

James Xkwcomb,
Elijah Baxter.
George Baxter,
Thomas G. Fenno,

THE DEACONS.

July 5, 1640, Received to Communion.
" 12, " Dismissed from Boston Church.
" 21, 1642, " " " "

Oct. 12, 1653.

(1 a a

Nov. 2, 1679.

Aug, 21, 1727.

a n ((

May 11, 1747.

H U (1

" 29, 1752.

" 3, 1769.

" 1, 1771.

Nov. 3, 1773.

Jan. 27, 1811.

Oct. 24, 1817.

Nov. 22, 1835,

Ajiril 4, 1844.

July 21,

Jan. 20, 1861,

Died Feb. 2, 1868.
" Dec. 14, 1870.
" Jan. 11, 1865.

APPENDIX. 139

MEETING-HOUSES.

It was the making repairs much needed in the old stone meet-
ing-house which opened the way for the introduction of the pew
system, as the following vote indicates : —

" October 22, 1697.

" Voted at the same time that upon the drawing up or uniting the
men's seats with the women's in the present alle}', any Roome being
left after alterations in the meeting-house, any person with consent of
the Committee Selectmen may at their own proper charges mak pews
for themselves and familys." (Braintree Records, p. 3G.)

Then it was that the aspiring person spoken of in the second
discourse asked permission to build the pew over the pulpit.
Seats at this time must have been very scarce in the meeting-
house, every available place occupied, to lead the respectable
Mr. Rawson to make this cherubic exhibition of himself and the
members of his household. One would give much to see them
soberly seated up there above the dignified deacons, and right
over the didactic minister Fiske. Here is the vote : —

"October 22, 1697.
" Voted also at the same time that M'. William Rawson should
have priviledge of making a seate for his familie, between or upon
the two beams over the pulpit, not darkening the pulpit." (Braintree
Records, p. 36.)

For ten years or so Mr. Rawson and his family looked down
upon his fellow- worshippers and his minister ; then, in 1709, it
was voted " that M'' William Rawson sen' shall have the Liberty
of a Pew on the back side of the meeting-house for himself and
all his Family at the left hand of M"" Wilson's Pew, M"" Wilson's
and M"* Quinsey's Pews being removed back to y'' wall." But it
was a standing difficulty to dispose of Mr. Rawson. Two votes
more, one in 1710 and the other in 1711, were taken before he
was finally seated in " a second Pew home to the wall, at the
west end of the meetincr-house."

140 APPENDIX.

These pews, by the way, were granted with the most liberal
conditions. Captain Wilson, who was the first to obtain permis-
sion to build one, was allowed to put it in whatever convenient
place he should elect, and Joseph Crosby, to secure room enough
for his, was granted leave to move the east door about four feet
to the northward. To do this, he stoned up the old door, and
then tore down the wall to make the new door. Although those
of the " south end " had withdrawn, the floor was soon covered
with seats and pews, and then David Bass thought he discovered
a vacant spot by the east window where a pew might be squeezed
in, and applied for the space. But this was too much crowding
even for the men of those days, and accordingly the vote passed
in the negative. The passion for exclusiveness also got posses-
sion of John Sanders and Samuel Savel, and it was voted they
" should have the Two hindermost short seats in the gallery, in
the southwest side of the meeting-house extending to the Beams,
for a Pew for their wives and children." Aristocracy and exclu-
siveness might have dominion on the ground floor ; but in the
gallery, — no ! the boys were there, the tireless baiters of tithing-
men. When Sanders and Company came one Sunday to occupy
their new pew, they found it a wreck. Some five months after
they had obtained the coveted privilege, " it was put by the
Moderator whether they would Relinquish their Right to their
Pew, which was broken, to the Precinct. They then did both
thereupon Resign their Right to y® Precinct." No second at-
tempt, I believe, was made to build a pew in the galleries.

I have tried to make a plan of this old church after the pews
were all arranged in it, and think I have been fairly successful.
The building was so nearly square that the same wall was some-
times called a side and sometimes an end. So I have assumed
it was thirty-five feet square. The pews can be placed with tol-
erable accuracy ; they could be placed with entire accuracy if
one could be sure where the stairs to the women's gallery were
situated. I have drawn tliem in the northwest corner ; they
may have been in the southwest corner. But after all it is only

APPENDIX.

141

a matter of the order of the pews against the west wall, — they
being described as first from the women's stairs, second from
the women's stairs, etc. It is to be taken into consideration,
however, that seats and pews were placed with no such regularity

SOUTHEAST.

Minister's.
No. 2. 1701.

PULPIT.
Deacons' Seats.

Table.

Benj. ■Webb.
No. 10. 1714.

To Men's
Gallery.

Men's Seats.

Women's Seats.

Maj. John Quincy.
No. 8. 1712.

Capt. John Wilson.
No. I. 1700.

Col. Ed. Quincy.
No. 3. 1709.

Capt. Mills.
Lieut. Cleverly.
Ensign Adanis.
Ensign Baxter.

No. 7. 1712.

Ensign
Wm. Veazie.

No. 6. 1711.

Wm. Rawson.

No. 4. 1711.

Sara. Spear.
No. 5. 1711.

To Women's
Gallery.

NORTHWEST.

and symmetry as would appear by the plan. The figures indicate
the order and the year in which the pews were built. An open-
ing is left for a west door, but I am not sure that there was one.
The old stone meeting-house, unused and dismantled of belfry
and windows, was permitted to stand in the little town common
till 1747, when it was sold at auction to Serg. Moses Belcher

142 APPENDIX.

and Mr. Joseph Nightingale for .£100, old tenor. At one time it
was proposed to convert it into a poor-house, but upon consider-
ation it was found not to be easily adapted to that use.

Hancock's meeting-house was sixty feet in length by forty
feet in width (inside measurement). The committee chosen to
build it " were Col. Edmund Quincey, Major John Quincey, Lieut.
Joseph Neall, Mr. Benjamin Beall, Deacon Peter Adams, Ensign
Samuel Baxter, and Mr, Joseph Crosbey." " Then the question
was asked whether the said house should be accomidated with
Pews as conveniently as may be, it passed in the affirmative."
Pews were still such an innovation that it was not to be taken
for granted they would be built in the new meeting-house ; and
the vote to have them is not to be taken as implying that the
entire floor and the galleries were to be occupied by them, as in
modern churches. The half-way system in vogue in the later
years of the old stone edifice was carried over into the new
building. The floor, for the most part, was still to be covered
with the two rows of the " men's seats " and the " women's
seats," and the front of the galleries was reserved, the south one
for the women, the north one for the men. Tluis the pews were
mainly set against the walls. They were of the little-square-
room description, and were disposed of in five lots, as follows :
"eight pews at <£25, twelve at c£15, eight at £12, six at .£10,
and six at X7, and in the galleries twenty pews, viz., eight in
the front against the wall at £10; and (if it be thought conve-
nient) six on each side (against the wall) at £8." John Adams,
afterwards deacon, was the clerk at this time, and he records an
" account of the persons who drew pews in the new meeting-
house, and of the situation of the said pews as the same were
drawn persuant to a rule agreed upon for that end the fourteenth
day of August, 1732." It is from that account and other min-
utes that the diagram under the picture of the church on a pre-
ceding page is made. Pews in the galleries at about the same
time were also disposed of to the following persons : Lieut.
Thomas Crosby, Deacon Samuel Savel, Samuel Adams, Nathan-

APPENDIX. 143

icl Gilbird, Joseph Crosby, Jr., Aaron Hayward, Thomas Clev-
erly, William Hayden, Jr., Ezekiel Crane. On a higher level still
Capt. Samuel Baxter built him a pew above the women's stairs
in the gallery, and Lieut. Joseph Crosbey was granted the sim-
ilar place above the men's stairs. In time, more pews were built
on the ground floor, usurping the place of the benches, and the
remaining benches were joined together in some places across
the aisle, and short seats put up where any room was to be had,
so that at last only those expert at it could thread the devious
path among them. From the memoirs of the wife of President
Quincy (she came here in 1798) the following view of the in-
terior of the church at a later time is obtained : —

" The pews in the centre . . . having been made out of long open
seats, by successive votes of the town, were of different sizes, and
had no regularity of arrangement, and several were entered by nar-
row passages, winding between those in their neighborhood. The
seats being provided with hinges were raised when the congregation
stood during the prayer, and at its conclusion thrown down with a
momentum which on her first attendance alarmed Mrs. Quincy, who
feared the church was falling. The deacons were ranged under the
pulpit, and beside its door the sexton was seated, while from an
aparture aloft in the wall the bell-ringer looked in from the tower
to mark the arrival of the clergyman. The voices of the choir
in the front gallery were assisted by a discordant assemblage of
stringed and wind instruments."

Not altogether by the " poorer sort " were the " seats " occu-
pied. Very many of the most respectable people in the parish
filled them. Here is a record in illustration : " Whare as Mrs.
Mary Norton hath of late given to Braintree North Precinct a
Velvet Cushen of Considerable Value. Voted, that thanks be
Returned to the said Madm. Norton for the Gift aforesaid, and
that she be invited to tak the upper end of the fore sect for her
sect in the new Meeting-House." It was on these " fore sects "
that John Adams as a boy saw from his father's pew near the

144 APPENDIX.

pulpit those rows of " venerable heads," a sight which affected
liim deeply. The invasions began to be made upon the seats,
when on April 4th, 1757, it was voted, " That the Ground upon
wch the two hindermost seats on each side the Midle Alley Stand
Be Disposed of in order that Pues may Be rested their on by ye
Purchcrs, provided four appear for that porpus." The expected
" Purchers " were of those who sat on the seats ; the discomfort
suggested in the word " Purchers " is not intentional, but, sitting
in our luxurious modern pews, we may regard it as a " palpa-
ble hit."

The choir came into existence in March, 1764. The following
is a vote recorded at that time : " That the two seats in the front
Gallery Be Divided By an AUe in the Midle of Sd seats To acomi-
date those persons that have Ben att Pains and expense to Gain
Instruction in the Use of Psalmodj, and that the Division next
the Wemans Sects Be their Part." In 1772 they were invited to
" acomidate " themselves below, where the " men's hind seats "
and the " women's hind seats " are " now standing," and in 1794
they were coaxed back into the gallery again.

In 1805 the church was enlarged " by sawing the building
lengthwise with the ridge pole, from north to South, moving the
front, or west portion of the same, fifteen feet forward, and fram-
ing in the intermediate space." A little before this the stairs
to the galleries in both the west corners were removed, and
entrances to the galleries effected by the tower on the north
side, and by a tall porch on the south side. The ground floor
of the church as thus altered, and as it appeared when the build-
ing was taken down, in 1828, w^as represented in the Rev. George
Whitney's History of Quincy. This we print, not only because
it shows us the plan of the pews, but also because it shows us
who wore the members of the parish at this time, and how they
disposed themselves (see page 145).

To make the list of pew-owners complete, we add those who
held pews in the galleries : Bryant Newconib, Capt. Benjamin
Page, Alpheus and Lemuel Spear one pew between them, George

APPENDIX.

145

Spear, Ebenezer Bent, Thomas Adams, Solomon and Josiah
Nightingale one, Ezra Glover, Daniel Spear. " The first four
pews," says Mr. Whitney, " were in the east end of the south

Night- c
ingale.

EAST. 6i feet.

hulpit.

Deacons' Seat.

^■2 "si

,^ Gen.
■^•^ Taylor.

Ministry. 24

47 Glover.

Baxter. 23

46 Fennx>.

Mayo. 22

43 Glover.

Jenkins. 21

44 Hall.

TliaycT Sc
IJrigham. ^

43 Souther.

Capt Bass. 19

42 SaviL

Greenlcaf '^

41 Pope.

S. Spear. 17

40 Green.

Beale. 16

39 Apthorp.
38 Applcton.

E. Spear. 15

WillettS: ,,
French. ''»
ISrackett &
Newcomh "

37 Billings.

I Presidents.

Baxter. 25

2 Greenleaf.

Dea. Spear
& N. Bent. ^^

3 Nightingale

Baxter. 27

4 Tufts.

Newcomb. 28

5 Riddle.

Curtis. 29

6 Baxter.

Curtis. 30

Judge
7 Adams.

Deacon „.
Savil. 31

8 Briesler.

Crane 4.
Nightingale^

9 Miller.

Baxter ,,
tc Wild. 33

10 Quincy.

Quincy. 34

„ Shaw &
" Chulilnick.

,0 15- & .'■

Hardwick, 35

Bass. 36

Keat-
ing.

MK&H
Marsh.

W.

Marsh.

Pray.

Parch. WEST.
GROUND FLOOR AFTER THE ALTERATIONS OF THE BUILDING IN 1805.

gallery, and were occupied by the owners. The others were on
the back of the west gallery, most of the owners occupying their
pews below."

It is instructive to know how this same congregation seated it-
self in the Stone Temple when it was ready for worship, in 1828,
and we append a diagram made at that time (see page 146).

It would be a complete presentation of pcw-owncrs if to the
above plan could be added a plan of the galleries. No such
plan, however, is to be found. I wrote to a lady, familiar all her
days with the church and its people, with regard to the occupants
of the galleries, and received this for answer : " I can only

146

APPENDIX.

PEWS IN THE NEW STONE MEETING-HOUSE, QUINCY.
134 ON THE Floor, 22 in the Galleries.

r

pr

a

9

3
s

U

^J*>T3CO

5

1

□

'

B
1

PULPIT.

OB

a

■5
&

«*

S
a

<y

1-5

U

a
■§

>o

6

7
Dea. J. Adams.

if

a
'S

■s

a
•§

"-5

Tho. Adams.

87
J. White-
more.

86
Parish.

49
Capt. J.
Whitney.

4S
Wm. Baxter.

10

Wm.

Baxter, Jr

124

Capt.
Batcheldor.

123
S. Littlefleld.

88
Isaac Bass.

Sai
1

85

n. Cop-
and.

84

en. T.
ay lor.

50
D. Qreenleaf.

47

Dea.

D. Spear.

11

James

Baxter.

~ 12

A. Willett.

89
E W. Samp-
son.
90 •
Isaac Riddle.

G
T

51

Hon.

T. Greenleaf

46
N. Curtis.

H
F

122

iryey
ield.

83
llarvey
Field.

52
E. Miller.

C
T

J

Nigh

45

otton
ufts.

13

S. Nightin-
gale.

E

121

lisha
larsb.

91
Dea. S. Savil.

82
J. Williams.

53

Geo. W.

Bcale.

44

3siah
tingale.

14
Paul Wilde.

120
J. Brigham.

92
Ezra Glover

93
Lem. Pope.

81
Nath. White

54

Hon.

J. Q. Adams.

43

James

Newcomb.

15

J. Briesler,

Jr.

119
D. French.

118
P. Turner.

80
Adam
Curtis.

55

Hon.

J. Quincy.

42
Mrs. Baxter.

16
Wm. Wood.

94
J. Bass, Jr.

79
Henry
Wood.

56

Hon.

J. Quincy.

A(

41

0. n.

anis.
40 ^
irdwick.

17
Doi-t. T.

Phipp-s.

117
Mrs. Fenno

95
Hor. Glover.

78

Capt.

J. Bass.

67

John

Souther.

F. Hi

Gl

18
Tames
1 wards.

116

Capt.

B. Page.

96
John Savil.

77
N. Josselyn.

58
J. Brigham.

39
Elijah Spear.

19
John
Dver, .Tr.

115
Josiah Savil.

97
John L.
Souther.

98
A. Hard-
wick.

76
Elihn
Arnold.

75

59
C.ipt. 0.
Jenkins.

38
Elisha
Marsh.

20
T. J. Night-
ingale.

114
L. Baxter.

60
Eben. Shaw.

J
Ht

37

osiah
lyden.
36
■}po.
tingale.

21

Tho.

Notfage.

113
Tho. Taylor.

99
Joe. Burrell.

74

61

<

Xigl

•22
John
Dwell

e.

112
Jon. Marsh.

100
S. Spear &
G. Baxter.

73

62

.35
D. Ilobart.

23
J. H. Bass.

J. (

Ill
Juincy.

101

72

63
John Shaw.

34
Jon. Spear.

24

Jos.se
Newcomb.

25
Wm. Spear.

K

110
\Vm.
iJder.

102
n.Uardwick.

71

64

Alph

33

. Spear.

109
D. Grcenleaf

103

70

65

Op

1

32
rv. W.

.■alo.

31

26
Capt. J Bass.

108

104
Tho. Taylor.

69

66

27
El>cn.
Adams.

107

105

6S
C. & L.
Faxon.

67
J. 'Whitney.

30

28

106

29

APPENDIX. 147

remember Mr. Bryant Newcomb, from the Neck, Miss Mary Jane
Turner's grandfather, and Ned Seaver, who sat in the gallery
opposite Temple Street. ... I saw Mrs. Jerusha Hardwick last
evening, and she thought there were not many in the galleries
in those days." I am inclined to think this latter conclusion
is to be accepted. It was then considered the proper thing to
sit downstairs, and not many gallery-pews would be purchased
while pews were to be obtained within the fashionable area.
As will be seen by the plan, a great many pews remained un-
sold on the floor. President J. Q. Adams bought thirty of
them for three thousand dollars.

The building committee of the Stone Temple was composed of
the following gentlemen : Thomas Greenleaf (chairman), Noah
Curtis, John Souther, Lemuel Brackett, and Daniel Spear.

GIFTS OF COMMUXION VESSELS.

The following is a list of the sacred vessels belonging to First
Church, with the inscriptions they bear, and some facts about those
who gave them : —

A small cup, having two handles, and
marked on the bottom, —

JOANNAH YORKE,
1685
B C

James Yorke and Johanna his wife
were among the earliest members of our
church. According to the Braintree records, a son was born to them
June 14, 1648. Afterward they removed to Stonington, Conn., where
in 1666 James was made freeman.

In the letter-book of Samuel Sewall, Vol. I. p. 28, is the following
entry : —

February the 20th, 1G8|. I Samuel Tomson, Deacon of the Church of
Christ at Braintrey, have received of Sam. Sewall one silver Goblet to the
value of fourty shillings in money; which is in full of a Legacy of fourty shil-
Ungs bequeathed said church by Mrs. Joanna Yorke of Stonington, lately

148 APPENDIX.

deceased. In •witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day
and year first above written.

Samel Tompson [Sig.].

Elizabeth Lane.

Maky Kay.

A small cup of the same form as the preceding, bearing a coat-of-
arms on the surface and marked on the bottom, —

B C

1 699

The side opposite the coat-of-arms is marked, " Gift of Edmund
Quinc}', Esq., to the First Church of Braintree, now Quincy, by will
dated December 11th, 1G97."

A small cup of the same form as the preceding, plain on the sur-
face, with the following inscription: "Ye gift of Decon Samll bas,
W" Veasey, Jno. Ruggle, David Walesby, 1694."

A high cup marked below the rim, "The gift of William Needham
to Brantry Church, 1688." William Needham was granted in 1639 a
house-plot out of the little island beyond Coddington's brook.

A high cup marked, —

The B is for Brackett, and the It stands for Richard, and the A for
Alice his wife. Richard Brackett was in Boston in 1632, and with
his wife Alice was dismissed from Boston church to Braintree church,
Dec. 5, 1641. He probably came here earlier, as in June, 1638, he
was granted leave to sell house and garden in Boston. Richard died
the 3d of March, 1690, aged eighty ; Alice died the 3d of November,
1690, aged seventN'-six. The cup was probably- given as a memorial
of both after their death.

A high cup marked, "The gift of Mrs. Mehetable Fisher to the
First Church of Christ in Braintree, 1741." In the old cemetery in

APPENDIX. 149

Quincy is a gravestone with this inscription : " Here lies Buried y* Body
of Mrs. Mehitable Fisher, wife of Mr. Josiah Fisher. She died May
18th, 1741, in the 78 year of her age."

A cup marked, "The gift of y* Hon'ble Edmund Quincy, Esq., to
ye First Church in Braintree, Feb'y 23d, 1737-38."

A tankard marked, " The gift of the Hon'ble John Quincj', Esq., to
the First Church of Christ in Braintree, 1767."

A tankard marked, "■ The gift of Mrs. Sarah Adams (Relict of Mr.
Edward Adams, late of Milton) to the First Church in Braintree."
There is no date added, but the church records fix the time Nov. 4,
1770.

Four large-sized flagons, marked as follows : " Presented by Daniel
Greenleaf to the Congregational Church in Quinc}', 1828."

Three plates, marked thus : " Presented to the First Congregational
Church in Quinc}', b}' Deacon Josiah Adams, Deacon Daniel Spear,
and Deacon Samuel Savil, 1828."

A baptismal vase having this inscription: "Presented to the Con-
gregational Church in the town of Quincy, b}- Mrs. Eliza Susan
Quincy, 1828."

A small cup having two handles, and marked on one side, —

with the following inscription below it: "To the First Unitarian
Church of Quincy, from Quincy Tufts, Weymouth, July 4, 1872 ; " on
opposite side, C T to Q T ; and on bottom, —

T
P * M

A tankard bearing a coat of arms, and on the bottom, —

marked, "To the First Unitarian Church in Quincy, from Quincy
Tufts, Weymouth, July 4, 1872."

150 APPENDIX.

OTHER GIFTS TO THE CHURCH.

The clock on the front of the singers' gallery was presented, it is
said, by Madam Abigail Adams, wife of President Adams, Sr., and
Madam Esther Black, widow of the late Moses Black, Esq. The
Rev. Frederick A. Whitney, however, says nothing of this, and quotes
the following from a book we have not been able to find : " Sept. 30,
1799. Voted, that the thanks of the town be returned to President
Adams and Mr. Moses Black for the present to the town of a clock
in the meeting-house." When this clock was transferred to Stone
Temple, it was " voted to put a new dial and glass to" it.

The fine crimson curtain which adorns the wall back of the pulpit
was given to the church by Miss Nancy Brackett.

The two volumes of Scriptures, used in the pulpit, contain the fol-
lowing : "To the Church and Congregational Society of the Town of
Quinc}-, this Bible, for the use of the Sacred Desk, is respectfully
presented by Josiah Quincy. Boston, Oct., 1808."

" New bound and divided into two volumes, Oct., 1828. Josiah
Quinc}-."

Ml'. Thomas Adams, who died Jan. 2, 1869, bequeathed to the church
the sum of ten thousand dollars for the support of public worship.

After the death of the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, it was seen by
certain minutes he had written that he had it in mind to add ten thou-
sand dollars to the amount given by Thomas Adams. No provision
for this was made in his will ; but the famil}' of Mr. Adams offered
the society ten thousand dollars, provided the total sum of both gifts,
twent}' thousand dollars, should be safely preserved, and the income
of it applied to the support of worship and the care of the church
building and the grounds around it. The societ}- accepted the gift
with the provisions attached, and appointed Ilenr}'^ A. Johnson,
Edward H. Dewson, and Charles II. Porter a board of trustees to
receive and manage the fund.

Miss Sarah Vinal, who died in Quinc}', Mny 20, 1881, aged 85, be-
queathed to the societ}- one thousand dollars. The income of this
sum is used to pay any expenses of the society.

APPENDIX. 151

WHEELWRIGHT'S PORTRAIT, AND OTHER PORTRAITS
AND PICTURES.

The original painting from which the portrait of John Wheelwright
in this volume is taken, hangs in one of the rooms of the Secretary of
State at the State House. Mj attention was called to it by Mr. Henry
B. Wheelwright, a direct descendant of the first pastor of this church.
I had it taken down, and together with Mr. A. C. Goodell, Jr., and
Mr. David Pulsifer, thoroughly scrutinized it. There is no name any-
where on or about the picture, no direct evidence that it is the portrait
of the Rev. John Wheelwright ; but an inscription in dark letters,
almost concealed in the dark paint of the background, indirect!}' points
to Wheelwright as the subject of it. That inscription was partly cut
off when at some time the canvas was reduced to fit a smaller frame.
It is as follows : —

"Aetat]is Suas 84
Anno DJomini 1677,"

These dates correspond very closely with the age of Mr. Wheel-
wright. He was born, says Mr. Bell, in the early part of 1593 ; add
eighty-four years to that, and it carries us to the year 1677, the j-ear of
the portrait. So far as I can ascertain, there is only one other minis-
ter,— the portrait is that of a minister, — to whose age these figures so
nicely accord. Roger Conant was born in 1592-93, and died Nov. 19,
1679, aged eighty-seven years. At one time the name of John Higgin-
son got attached somehow to the portrait, but as that minister was born
as late as 1616 the figures plainh^ have no application to him. Jeremy
Belknap, the historian of New Hampshire, presented what appears to
be a copy of this painting to the American Antiquarian Society of
Worcester. John Higginson's name was then upon it, and it is from
this fact, I am given to understand, that the portrait came to be called
that of John Higginson. Those like Mr. Goodell, Jr., and Dr. Edward
Strong, who have given some attention to the matter, are inclined to
think it a veritable portrait of Wheelwright. It used to hang in the
Senate Chamber. Wheelwright in his later j'ears was still a marked
man, not onh' as having been "like Roger Williams or worse," but
also as having been the honored guest of his friends the great Crom-

152 APPENDIX.

well and " Ilarrj" Vane when in 1657 be visited England, and in this
relation being of some considerable service to the colony. Besides
this, ' ' his children and grandchildren had married very conspicuously
in society, and there might have been a strong feeling to do the old
man justice in his failing age," and pay him such little attention as
having his portrait painted. From letters written me by Mr. Henry
B. Wheelwright, I venture to abstract the following : —

" John Wheelwright was the only clergyman in the colony of the age named
in the inscription at the date given as that of the painting of the portrait.
That 's all any one can say about it, as far as known outside of the family ; but
I am convinced from the anatomy of the face, old and withered as it is, and its
strong resemblance about the mouth and cheeks to some of my kindred, tliat it
is old ' Boanerges ' himself. ... I have learned tlie value of little things as
clews ; they have led me, Theseus-like, out of many a mystery. As far back
as I can remember in my family, there has been a ' trick ' in each generation of
carrying the thumb. My grandfather livetl to ninety-one, and always sat in his
armchair with hands slightly clasped, and both thumbs turned upward rujidhj,
in extenao. So with others of us wlio turn up one thumb. It is entirely invol-
untary with us all ; I am liable to it if I go to thinking intently. Now, in this
picture there 's the old parson, with his hand on his Uible and thumb ri'^idly
turned up in the air, like three generations of us that I know of. This seems
laughable, to be sure, but identity is often detected by slighter 'clews.'

" ^Ir. John Wheelwright entered Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, April
28, IGll, pensioner, — which means that he was a person of property sufBcient
to maintain him in good style. I took this myseK from the original books
of Sidney-Sussex last spring."

Wheelwright died at Salisbury, Mass., Nov. 15, 1679. The family
device on the tomb in King's Chapel 3-ard is " Spectemur agendo;"
and this, his descendant my correspondent thinks, is an entirely
appropriate and accurately descriptive motto.

To Mr. Harrison J. Dawos, a descendant of Richard Cranch and
closeh" resembling him in his features, I am indebted for the portrait
of that vigorous scholar and eminent citizen. The picture has enough
individuality about it to warrant it a good likeness. Another descend-
ant was the late INIr. llichard Greenleaf. lie had the original from
which the photograi)h was taken that was lent to mo by Mr. Dawes.

The portraits of members of the Adams family are, with tlie excep-
tion of that of the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, from original paint-

APPENDIX. 153

ings. In his "Figures of the Past" Josiah Quincy has a pleasant
description of John Adams sitting to Gilbert Stuart for the portrait
copied for this book. From the brush of that celebrated painter came
also the likeness of Abigail Adams. The portrait of John Quincy
Adams was painted by Copley, and that of Mrs. J. Q. Adams b}' an
unknown artist. Some of the best work of W. M. Hunt is exhibited
in the portrait of Mrs. Charles F. Adams. The heliotype of the Hon.
Charles F. Adams is from a very accurate photogi'aph.

It was an antiquarian motive which induced me to publish
pictures of houses representative of old Braintree. Already we
regret the loss of houses which, locall}', are historical, — notably the
Hancock house destroyed many years ago by fire, and the house in
which ministers Fiske and Marsh lived, lately removed to the back of
his land by Charles H. Spear, of Franklin Street, the present owner.
This latter house Samuel Tompson sold to Fiske, July 12, 1672 (Suf-
folk Deeds, 13 : 37, Br. Rec. p. 11). Is this the house Parson Tompson
lived in ? The "Webb house seemed to have the first claim to preserva-
tion, as it is a contemporary and neighbor of the oldest meeting-house
of which we have any record. It faced the little town common where
the meeting-house stood, and, as I surmise, was built parallel with
that branch of the road which diverged to the east to pass around the
meeting-house. It was "from the fence of Benjamin Webb, south-
erlj' " into the common fronting the east door of the meeting-house,
that sheds were built to shelter the horses of " persons liveing remote "
(Br. Rec. pp. 41, 66). It is the last of the old houses which were
situated in this neighborhood. The land on which it stands is that
parcel which Benjamin Tompson purchased of Thomas Bass about
1679 (Br. Rec. p. 19), and which, with the house upon it, was sold by
"Benjamin Tompson, of the town of Roxborough, school-master,
. . . with the free consent of Prudence his wife, ... to Benjamin
Webb, of the town of Brantre}', leather-dresser," Nov, 14, 1700
(Suffolk Deeds, folio 20, p. 489). Probably Tompson built it and lived
in it while teaching in the little schoolhouse on the common.

The Ruggles house, now occupied b}- Miss E. C. Adams and Mr.
Isaac Hull Adams, is one of the oldest in Quinc}' ; it is the rear part,
however, which is the ancient house. This is the house referred to in
Braintree Records, p. 6, where in 1655 " ther is layd one footway to

154 APPENDIX.

1}' from the Rocke b}- George Ruggells over the fresh Brooke." The
"roeke" is still ii marked object at the Elm Street end of the "Miller's
style " path, which is the way then laid out. George Ruggells is living
in Braintree in 1G42 when Boston threatens to sue him for the land
granted him in 1640 (Boston Records, Second Rep. of Rec. Com.
pp. 58, 59, 71, 82, 84). Probably the house was built in 1641.

The Brackett homestead is a ver}- old structure, at least in the
northwest end of it. Its situation near the shore and its structural
character mark it as a very ancient building. The Wheelwright grant
may have included the land upon which it is built. Captain Richard
Brackett was granted permission to sell house and garden in Boston,
June 1, 1638 (Bost. Rec. 34). If he then bought land in Braintree it
was just when Wheelwright was disposing of his grant, and Captain
Brackett may have been part purchaser. But this is all conjecture ; I
have not been able to find an}' facts. I am not at all confident, even,
that the earliest Capt. Richard Brackett owned and occupied this old
homestead. His land seems to be in this neighborhood (Br. Rec.
p. 5), and all the way up Town Brook to the county road (Hancock
Street) the land at a later time is in the possession of his descend-
ants. Elm Street was early called the road " leading to Capt. Richard
Brackett's Landing." But which Capt. Richard is it, — there was
another Richard born in 1707, — and where is the landing?

The Adams mansion, built originally about 1730, "as the summer
resort of a West India planter," says Mr. C. F. Adams the younger,
was sequestered as Tory property after the Revolution, and bought
b}^ John Adams in 1785. Leonard Vassall was the name of this
planter, a rigid Episcopalian, who in his will before his marriage, in
1737, made provision that his widow should have the use and improve-
ment of his real estate during her continuing "■ a professed member of
the Episcopal Church of England." The house he built "still con-
tains one room panelled from floor to ceiling in solid St. Domingo
mahogany. Originall}' it was a small dwelling, constructed on a plan
not unusual in the tropics, with a kitchen and all domestic arrange-
ments behind the house and in a separate building. In itself it con-
tained only parlors and sleeping-rooms ; but graduall}' it was added to,
until the original house is now lost in the wide front and deep gabled

Lewis Vassall 1730— Virchild 1749— Crunch— Greenloa'

Fioin ii shili li In Mi'^^ I-: SOtmicv. taken ni I8't6

r/in liotiM .stn,.,lv„ /l„,irork SlJSmuitm niM {liiuuv anil n„,i /mill ,,/jm,/ I6'l0 mi the lm,l

,.l t,u:l „<,i;n.i InmlK!',, Inlnnv

tn^_. Triy!;.' Fjrm, n./a- thf- cnrrv-r .-' B. M- .thI Hv.co^k S\f--:. '//■

APPENDIX. 155

wings of the later structure. In this house John Adams died ; and in
the same room in it were celebrated his own golden wedding, and the
golden wedding of his son and grandson."

It was a temptation not easily resisted to include among the pictures
a view of a corner of this drawing-room. Such was its appearance
while the house was occupied by the late Mr. and Mrs. C. F. Adams.
The last event of which it was the scene was the burial service over
llie remains of Mrs. Adams. Vocal is that room with great memories.
What gatherings of notable persons have been there ! What high
converse has been held there ! On the walls are the portraits of the
two Presidents and their consorts, and others famous in history.

Lewis Vassall, a brother of Leonard, built a house on the other side
of the town similar to the one bought by John Adams. He died in
17i3, having occupied the house about ten years. In 1749 the estate
was sold at auction to "James Virchild of the Island of St. Chris-
tophers, Esq." Some years afterward Richard Cranch sold his farm
back of President's Hill, and took up his residence in the Virchild
house. He lived here till his death in 1811. John Greenleaf, who
married Lucy, a daughter of Richard Cranch, subsequently bought
the estate. For many years it was the homestead of the Cranches
and the Greenleafs. The estate is now owned b}- Mr. James
Edwards. The old house was removed in the year 1857 to Water
Street, and a fine modern structure built in its place. A painting
of the house in its original situation was made while still occupied by
the Greenleafs, by Mr. C. P. Cranch, and from that the heliotype is
taken.

The old houses distinguished as the birthplaces of Presidents John
and John Quinc}- Adams are described as excellent specimens of the
dwellings of the farmers of the earliest period of our histor}-. Two
houses so notable there are not besides in the whole country-. Not
only are the^- famous as the birthplaces of two of our greater Chief
Magistrates, but as the scene of that beautifully heroic and devout
domestic life portraj-ed in the letters of Abigail Adams.

A history of considerable length might be written about the Quinc}'
mansion, but here one must limit himself to mere dates. The diary
of John Marshall tells us that "June 14, 1706, we raised Mr.

156 APPENDIX.

Quinzey's house," — but whether this was the beginning of the man-
sion or the building of an addition to it is a little uncertain. Before
this, on March 22, 1685-86, Samuel Sewall, according to an entry
in his diar}', "Lodged in the lower room of Unkle Quinsej's new
house." Was this " new house" the oldest part of the present man-
sion, or was it the little farm-house with the gambrel roof standing
a little to the south of the mansion? I am inclined to the opinion
that the "new house" of 1685-86 is the old part of the mansion,
and that the farm-house was there from the beginning. Indeed, with
respect to that farm-house the thought recurs again and again that it
is the original Coddington house. He had a house near here ; the
brook was first called " Coddington's Brook ;" and the land he sold
was in part on the south of the brook, extending as far as the "buring
ground." The Quincej-s seem to be in Boston till after the departure
of Coddington. But all this is aside from the real interest which
attaches to the Quincy mansion as the birthplace and home of so
many eminent persons.

The farm-house of the Eev. John Wilson is included among the
pictures because it is a good specimen of the old architecture, and
because it was built by the minister whose parish had its centre in
Boston and its confines in this distant region. He was the first to
receive a grant of land within the limits of our old township. He
was given a great farm here, and built him the house in the picture.
The house he never occupied, but descendants of his lived in it and
it was long in the famih'. With regard to the sketch reproduced for
this book, I quote the following from a letter received from Mr. Thomas
Minns of Boston in response to inquiries made of him : —

"I had given considerable attention to the genealogy of the Rev. John
Wilson, and knew that the later generations of the Quincys were descended
from him, and that the thousand acres of land granted him by the Colony
adjoined the Quincy estate.

" When ]\Ir. A. B. Ellis was writing his history of the First Church in
Boston, I suggested that he should write to the Quincys and ask if they had
anything about the Rev. John Wilson.

" This drew out interesting letters from the late Hon. Josiah Quincy and
his sister Miss E. S. Quincy, and one of her letters was accompanied by a
sketch of the house and barn made by her in 1846.

APPENDIX. 157

" Mr. E. Wbitefield, an artist, was known to me as having produced several
interesting volumes of ' Homes of our Forefathers,' and I suggested to JMr.
Ellis that he should make this sketch for his book, and it will be found at page
101. Mr. Wbitefield went to Quincy, saw Miss Quincy, who kindly accom-
panied him to the spot ; and he then and there made this sketch, adding the
bouse and barn from the picture made by Miss Quincy in 1846. I think the
cellar of the house still remains."

To one who is familiar with the history of the Quincy family, it
must seem an omission that portraits of other eminent bearers of the
name are not inserted in this volume. There is Edmund Quincy,
third of the name, born in 1627, conspicuously active in the affairs of
town and church, the first major and lieutenant-colonel in Braintree, and
one of the Committee of Safety' which in 1688 formed the provisional
government of the colony until the arrival of the new charter from
WilUam and Mary. He bequeathed to our church a silver cup as a
token of his love for it ; his entire life was spent in this place. A
portrait of him is something to be wished for ; none, however, is in
existence, as far as I can learn. Of his son, another Edmund, born
in 1681, there is a portrait extant ; but it is said not to be worthy the
man. He is the Edmund the Rev. Mr. Hancock writes of so affection-
ately. A notable man he was in his daj-, made colonel of the Suffolk
regiment, — Braintree was then part of Suffolk County, — and com-
missioned judge of the Superior Court of Judicature. At the age of
fiftj^-eight he was appointed b}' the State special agent to represent its
interests at the court of Great Britain with respect to the boundary
line of Massachusetts and New Hampshire ; he died in London while
executing his trust. He was in his day the most prominent man in
First Church. It is " Colonel Edmund Quinse}-, Esqr.," who is chosen
moderator of the first meeting of "ye north-end Precinct," and he
continues to be the favorite presiding officer and leading spirit of it
till after the building of the Hancock meeting-house, which he did
so much to further. He is interesting to us, also, as the father of
" Dorothy Q. ; " and to afford a glimpse of them and their times I can-
not do better than to insert here a letter written to the damsel when she
was visiting at Springfield. Mr. Quincv was living in the mansion by
the brook, and Doroth}- was fifteen years of age, a little older than
when her portrait was painted, as Dr. Holmes guesses. The letter is
taken from Miss Eliza Susan Quincy's Memoir of Edmund Quincy,

158 APPENDIX.

published in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register

for April, 1884.

Braintree, July 8, 1724.

My dear Daughter, — This is to bring you the good news of my safe
return home, Commencement day, in the evening, and finding your mother in
good health.

With this you will have from your sister Betsey the things you wrote for
by me, and from your brother Edmund a small present. My child, you are
jjeculiarly favored among your friends in these parts in having a good word
spoken of you, and good wishes made for you by everybody ; let this hint be
improved only to quicken and encourage you in virtue and a good life.

;My love to all the family in which you are, with your Mother's and Grand-
mothers' also, to them and you.

I am your dear and loving father,

E. QuixcY.

Half a yard of muslin being too little for two head-dresses, your sister has
sent you one yard wanting half a quarter, which cost ten and sixpence, — and
the thread (lace) cost fourteen shillings ; so much I paid for, and 't is the best
thread and muslin of the price.

Some time before the departure of Edmund Quincy for England,
Major John Quincy was frequently appointed moderator of the North
l*recinct (or church) meetings ; he also, for years, was a favorite pre-
siding officer. There is a portrait of him as a child in the possession
of the Adams family ; but it is the " major" we want to sec, — the
"colonel," the "speaker of the House," the patriot who "was as
much esteemed and respected as any man in the province." As
such, unfortunately, his face is not to be looked upon. It was in
honor of him that the North Precinct was named Quincy. Mr. C. F,
Adams the younger writes of this incident as follows : —

"When in 1792 the original town of Braintree was subdivided, the Rev.
Anthony Wibird was requested to give a name to the place; but he refusing',
a similar re(picst was made to the Hon. Richard Cranch, who recommended
its being called Quincy, in honor of Col. John Quincy. Nor was this the only
form in which tlie nanm was perjjetuatcd. Colonel Quincy had two children,
a son named Norton in lK)nor of his mother's family, and a daughter who
became in time the wife of William Smith, of Weymouth. Among the children
of this couple was one who in October, 1764, married John Adams. In July,
17G7, as old John Quincy lay dying at Blount Wollaston, this granddaughter of
his gave birth to a son, and when, the next day, as was then the practice, tlio
child was baj)tized, its grandmother, who was present at its birth, requested

APPENDIX. 159

that it miglit be called after her father. Long afterwards, the child thus
named wrote of this incident : ' It was filial tenderness that gave the name.
It was the name of one passing from earth to immortality. These have
been among the strongest huks of my attachment to the name of Quincy,
and have been to me through life a perpetual admonition to do nothing
unworthy of it.' "

The portrait of the William Smith, above spoken of, is placed in
the group of some particularly connected with First Church for two
reasons : First, because that minister is closeh' related to man}' per-
sons prominent in our history', — one daughter, as we have seen,
marrj'ing John Adams, and another manying Richard Cranch. The
second reason is an antiquarian one, the desire to save the likeness
from possible destruction.

MOSES FISKE'S AUTOGRAPH.

Mr. William Blake Tuask transcribed latelv the sermon which
the Rev. Moses Fiske preached June 4, 1694, before the Ancient and
Honorable Artillery Company. This was done by vote of the com-
pany, and it is now for the first time printed. While engaged in this
work, Mr. Trask searched out the material for a quite exhaustive life
of minister Fiske, with a view to publication. What he has written is
still in MSS. He found an autograph of Mr. Plske in Worcester,
which he at once had engraved. This he Las kindly permitted me
to use.

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